Healthcare technology trends

In today’s connected world, technology is becoming increasingly relevant in every business industry, as well as our personal lives. Of all the industries that technology plays a key role in, healthcare technology is certainly one of the most critical. Care providers and organizations are relying evermore on emerging technology in healthcare for improving and saving countless lives worldwide.

In the healthcare industry, the dependency on health technology is ever increasing, and as a result of healthcare technology trends, practitioners can carry on with finding ways to improve their practice, from better diagnosis to improved patient care.

Healthcare technology also known as healthcare tech refers to any IT tools or software designed to improve hospital and administrative productivity, give new insights into medicines and treatments, or improve the overall quality of care provided. The healthcare industry is constantly looking for ways to better technology and medicine in nearly every possible sector. 

This is where health technology comes into the picture. Care providers are using a variety of new technology in the medical field, including a host of software applications to manage their growing administrative workloads and to improve coding productivity standards. One of the healthcare industry’s largest opportunities for improvement is incorrect or delinquent diagnosis. Emerging trends in healthcare include utilizing healthcare tech to develop medical algorithms that can interpret multiple data sources at the same time and help detect deadly diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or diabetes with acute complications, earlier and with greater accuracy than ever before.

Doctors are scientists that welcome being shown concrete evidence and best in class risk adjustment software offerings today utilize complex medical algorithms to link clinical documentation that’s already in the patient's chart with the disease suspects the software presents. Healthcare tech programs that highlight and link to the original documentation in the patient chart, make the evidence easy to understand, and therefore make it simpler for physicians to understand why the software is suspecting a disease.

Emerging computer assisted coding programs that encourage and facilitate collaboration between the coding community and providers are extending the capabilities of coders across more providers, increasing the utility coders are able to offer medical groups. The goal of medical coding software shouldn’t be to replace coders, instead software should improve coder performance with regard to the accuracy and speed of clinical documentation review. Healthcare technology that facilitates collaboration and communication between coders and providers present new opportunities for more comprehensive patient diagnosis, and reduced clerical bottlenecks for both coders and providers.

Healthcare tech tools are being integrated into every step of the healthcare experience. Artificial intelligence in healthcare like natural language processing (NLP) and medical machine learning are helping administrative teams streamline patient workflows. Sub-optimal risk adjustment software that results in an overabundance of false positives suspects has been a major obstacle in adoption. If there are too many “junk suspects” coders may reject NLP technology altogether, stating the technology is more work that it’s worth. We would all agree that if your email was over 90% spam, and just a small amount were relevant messages you would quickly lose confidence in the email program. Now with advanced technology the best NLP software for healthcare can determine an accurate balance between false positives and false negatives resulting in well over 90% accurate suspects. When a recommendation is made with above 90% certainty, coders and physicians are more likely to gain confidence in the conclusions the NLP is suggesting.

Healthcare tech like NLP wasn't available years ago. But the technology is here today, decision makers need to be able to accept technology and motivate providers to be doing things the right way, the first time, at the point of care. 

Meanwhile, healthcare IT trends like patient portal apps are asking patients initial questions and prioritizing schedules so caregivers can use their time effectively. With more providers and healthcare organizations using healthcare technology like mobile devices and specialized software applications, physicians can now have instant access to any type of healthcare analytics information they need, from patient health history, research information and more. And, since providers can easily carry these mobile devices around throughout the work day, the information they need is always just a touch or swipe away. 

Technology and medicine has evolved over the decades from introducing doctors to new equipment to connecting patients and caregivers thousands of miles away through telecommunications. Today’s emerging trends in healthcare see patients holding video conferences with physicians to save time and money normally spent on traveling to another physical location.

Physicians and patients are both seeing the benefits that new technology in the medical field is bringing, with the increased use of telehealth services, and mobile technologies like tablets and smartphones. The COVID-19 pandemic has doctors, health systems and medical specialties providing more telehealth services than ever before. Telehealth coverage for enrollees and reimbursements to payers continue to expand, and with Medicare Advantage growth on a steady uptick, the benefits of healthcare IT trends will only become more evident over time. For example, an elderly patient recovering at home in post-acute care could receive a video consultation, without the physical and financial impact of travel costs. In any case, familiarity with telehealth services and other emerging technology in healthcare will continue to gain wider adoption.

Challenges for Healthcare Technology and Documentation 

When you take an in deep look at the way healthcare technology and computers analyze medical charts, some say there’s a flaw. The flaw could be related to the way physician notation is documented and the way health technology attempts to understand it. New advances in healthcare tech create better opportunities to read through charts, understand clinical records, and contribute to creating more accurate treatment choices. If our medical students and residents of today were trained to document in a way that could help technology understand what they really mean, it could help new technology in the medical field to better analyze charts for their integrity and achieve the goal that the technology aspires to. The more organized and structured the documentation is, the better chance that a computer could read that chart, and contribute to the development of a treatment that may help that very same patient. That data could then be used to create opportunities for cures that we would have never had with hand written notes. 

The Future of Healthcare Technology

The uses for healthcare technology are seemingly endless. In order to improve efficiency throughout the industry and make the patient experience as painless as possible, healthcare tech is being implemented in everything from administrative processes, to more complete and accurate diagnosis. Emerging technology in healthcare like applications that aid in identifying potential health threats and examining digital information from lab results and problem lists also contribute to the benefits that healthcare technology trends bring to medicine.

As new technology in the medical field and the evolution to value-based payment models continue to take shape we have to continually familiarize ourselves with the latest healthcare technology trends in order to control technology and not the reverse. The future of healthcare is working together with health technology, and healthcare workers have to accept emerging healthcare tech in order to stay relevant in the years to come.