Close up of senior woman checking her pulse after exercise
Across the healthcare spectrum, we are now seeing more empowered, health-seeking consumers seeking access to better healthcare. And that includes cost transparency, access to personal health records for self-improvement, and chronic disease monitoring. As consumer behavior and preferences continue to change, we need to rapidly adapt the digital healthcare landscape to provide a variety of regulated and unregulated tools and platforms. Why?
Well, for two reasons. According to iHealthcareAnalyst, inc. in a report dated Oct. 19, 2021, the global preventive health care market will be $287 billion by 2027. The second reason is more important. The current healthcare model is cracking. Hospitals are not equipped for a shift towards preventive care with outdated infrastructure and care models. Companies such as CVS and others offer clinic care in their stores with nurses. And because of the COVID pandemic, people are getting vaccinations everywhere, even at home. With the possibility of remote care and technology, why can’t we turn healthcare around and move to more diagnostic and preventive care instead of waiting to be hospitalized.
Personal health care and prevention. If our goals are healthy, then we need improved proactive monitoring that we control. We need smarter applications for smartphones and computers that help people better control their health and physical activities. We need to shift wearable devices from just reactive monitoring to proactively advising or alerting, in real time, the health needs of each individual so that future health problems can be avoided. The combination of an initial care assessment, knowledge of the patient’s physical makeup through DNA analysis and then a smart application can be a strong preventive care platform.
Smart remote monitoring. We need more Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), so our doctors can know what’s going on with a patient without being physically close. RPM has several benefits, including better patient outcomes, faster response time, and significant cost savings over time. There are a few RPM solutions on the market right now for blood pressure, etc. What else can be monitored to save someone’s life in a more proactive way? Can we monitor a person whose family has a history of brain aneurysms (stroke) so that when blood pressure is dramatically affected, we alert the patient and doctor immediately?
Medicine’s version of Internet of Things (IoT).The Internet of Things refers to the invisible network formed by physical objects connected to the Internet. What does this mean for healthcare? We have all these devices and applications that are connected to the Internet and may now be collecting information about us. We have other technologies that we already communicate with in our homes, such as Alexa or in our vehicles. Who or how is all this connected to seamlessly monitor our health?
Where is my digital care assistant? Siri, how are you today? It seems we are surrounded by things like Siri and Alexa to do some simple things or answer our questions about cooking or exercising. Where are our digital healthcare assistants personalized for us as individuals? When we wear a smartwatch, the technology “knows” our standards. Do we need an AI-based application that becomes our own version of Siri and “talks” to us when we exceed our standards? We may need them when one of our vital signs fluctuates so much that we, or even our healthcare provider, get an alert.
Smarter wearables. Fitness trackers have been around for years. They track our movement, breathing, maybe heart rate and blood pressure. But in a reactive “historical” way. We need more solutions that are proactive in a real-time way. Dexcom is an example of this with their glucose monitoring solution for people with diabetes. For diabetic patients, portable continuous glucose meters (CGMs) are the new standard. Wearable CGMs eliminate the need for intermittent glucose testing and instead track a person’s blood sugar levels in real time. This allows users to see the direct effects of diet and exercise and adjust their lifestyle accordingly. It can also catch cases of hyperglycemia immediately. We need solutions like these for other major threats to our health based on our DNA and family history.
The idea of going to the doctor when we feel sick may not be the way we provide healthcare in the future. We need entrepreneurs to develop new types of intelligent ‘connected’ technology that allow us to live our lives as healthily as possible with minimal health risks. We need preventive healthcare solutions to prevent major health complications and actually use the entire healthcare system to work more efficiently, enabling us to live better lives.