“In the realm of healthcare, every challenge is an opportunity for innovation, every setback a call for resilience. As we navigate the intricate dance of restructuring and reckon with the global health landscape, let us embrace the words of Winston Churchill: ‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.’ In the pursuit of a healthier and more equitable world, our journey is relentless, and the promise of ever better lies ahead.”
PwC’s Next in Health 2023 report called this year one of ‘reckoning and restructuring’. Indeed, in what’s becoming a reoccurring dance of improvisation and adjustment, downcast global affairs and increasing technological penetration have perfectly combined to prove that forecast true. With an ever-increasing rise in global healthcare expenditure since 2018, the recent push for digital transformation, and the interjection of the COVID-19 pandemic, providers are struggling to reconcile high costs with affordable value.
If the immediate period after the pandemic was a chaotic scramble to the finish line, 2023 was about pushing that line a bit further and resorting to a more controlled gait in search of long-term cost-effectiveness. This strategy was helped in no small part by ongoing technological disruptions. For instance, connected health has turned the corner, easing the financial strain on providers while empowering patients in otherwise disenfranchised communities. Vitally, clinical innovation is at an all-time high: From steady advancements in R&D into areas like Multiple Antigen Presenting Systems and gene editing to making virtual health more mainstream, the industry continues to restructure and reinvent itself.Healthcare in 2023 witnessed improvements across the board, whether it was care delivery or digital health solutions like remote patient monitoring. Some notable trends include:
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: In today’s context, we’re talking about various small use cases and several more in the pipeline, including more headway in drug testing/development, disease identification, and predictive diagnostics. Generative AI, in particular, is having a breakthrough year, showing possible utility in automating cloud data migration. Of specific note are the several start-ups investing in AI solutions to trim down turnaround times, increase efficiencies, and minimise labour. Amazingly, these include work on AI-chip-powered bioprinters to replicate organ tissues. There’s also cancer-detection company Paige’s partnership with Microsoft—the association has resulted in the world’s largest image-based AI models for digital pathology and oncology, boding well for the future of cancer care.
Digital Health: The post-pandemic spirit of digital transformation has transitioned into 2023 despite a slowdown in deals this year. Investors were not as eager to part with their money as they were following the pandemic, choosing this time to spend around issues like mental health instead. Notably among the big-statement deals was Moderna’s recent collaboration with biopharmaceutical company Immatics to develop important cancer therapies. Other prominent agreements focused on early autism diagnosis and sensing technology to measure neural activity.
Upgrades and customisations to wearable devices and other consumer tech products continued, with the market singling out personalised options for vulnerable population segments. We saw telehealth make more inroads as 5G connectivity spread; mobile health is further predicted to rise in hard-to-access regions not served with adequate medical facilities. Doctors are also open to supporting their clinical work with AI-enabled apps and tools; a case in point is voice-enabled assistants that help complete patient notes faster. Virtual care offerings, in the meantime, have kept expanding and will be a cornerstone of the sector in the years to come.
Remote Patient Monitoring: Studies have shown that remote patient monitoring technology reduces the workload on nursing staff for monitoring patients in hospitals and clinics. For Patients, contactless technology improves the in-hospital experience by removing the need for wires, electrodes, and cuffs attached to the body. As the paradigm of the healthcare ecosystem evolves, remote patient monitoring will play a crucial role in enhancing the performance, productivity, and profitability of overall healthcare delivery. RPM can be a huge transformational step to enhance patient safety by automating and providing real-time monitoring of vital signs and other health parameters. This allows clinicians to identify deterioration quickly and intervene more effectively with the help of robust data. RPM can also help step-down patients from the ICU and provide them with continued care. This technology also provides a continuum of care that is otherwise not possible with traditional methods, allowing medical professionals to monitor their patient’s health even when they are at home. It has indeed opened up a world of possibilities for healthcare providers.
Equitable Healthcare: Where 2022 summoned leaders and governments to reckon with the blistering pace of digitisation, 2023 was about understanding how to leverage the same technology to eliminate socio-economic barriers to healthcare access. Propped by more mature systems and knowledge, health stakeholders and policymakers are rallying behind frameworks and executive orders to ensure all communities and people are included and acknowledged. As a result, awareness of the gaps in the industry and health disparities is high and growing. As for action undertaken, providers are working on tracking their methods towards negating these differences. Time will tell how these efforts pan out and whether people on the fringes of social, economic, and environmental circles are profiting. For now, it’s a step forward.
Other trends worth mentioning are the increasing cloud adoption in healthcare (and cloud-delivered software-as-a-service solutions), deeper examinations of healthcare worker shortages, and common points about patient safety, such as the fight against sepsis and poor care coordination in high-risk patients.
Ever better lies ahead
As AI lessens workloads, research finds new avenues, positive regulatory commitments take shape, and crucial vaccine trials reach critical thresholds, we’re on our way to a hugely different healthcare ecosystem by the turn of the decade. Expect this ecosystem to feature more efficient business models and novel responses to democratising care, among other sweeping changes. And at the rate we’re progressing towards it, 2024 could very well be 2023 dialed up to eleven.
Mudit Dandwate, CEO and Co-Founder, Dozee
(DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETHealthworld.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETHealthworld.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly).
