It’s no surprise that the ongoing pandemic has encouraged the swift adoption of a more digitized environment across many industries, but in healthcare in particular. Due to an increased need for virtual appointments, telemedicine has leaped to the forefront of healthcare decision-makers to-do lists, followed by a number of new ways to make healthcare more accessible to all through digital means.
In fact, healthcare providers are so invested in providing a higher quality healthcare experience that can exist regardless of location that 80% of them are planning to escalate investment in digital solutions and technologies in the next five years. Not only will these efforts result in better patient experiences, but it will also help struggling healthcare entities to boost their balance sheets by capturing the tremendous potential offered through these trends.
This article will take a closer look at emerging trends in health IT in 2022 so you can decide which — or how many — your healthcare organization may want to explore.
Health IT Trends Your Healthcare Organization Should Consider
Innovation is the hot topic for 2022 as more healthcare entities revise their use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), automation, and data analysis to bring their patients a higher level of care. Here, we examine a few of the most intriguing and useful trends for healthcare organizations:
Telemedicine
During the pandemic, healthcare providers had to find new ways to reach — and treat — their patient base without potentially exposing them to contact with the COVID-19 virus. To do this, physicians and other providers turned to telehealth. In just a few months — from February 2020 to April 2020, use of telehealth for office visits rose by 78%. Even though this trend was borne out of necessity during the pandemic, it endures because it offers increased access to healthcare and better outcomes and affordability for a wider range of patients.
Now that usage of telehealth or telemedicine has stabilized at 38 times what it was prior to the pandemic, we can see that up to 17% of patients across all specialties are taking advantage of this option. Some regulatory changes have made it easier and more adoptable by the expansion of the reimbursement codes for telehealth in the physician fee schedule by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Now, healthcare providers must concentrate on adopting high quality video conferencing strategies that are also compliant with requisite data protection and privacy regulations.
Data Management
Regulatory pressure from the 21st Century Cures Act and the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) brings new emphasis on information exchange and interoperability. Providers will be expected to streamline and strengthen workflows as more demanding consumers begin to expect a higher level of efficiency. Automation and data management will be used to reduce workload for the overstressed healthcare workforce.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity was a hot topic in healthcare during the pandemic, with many providers becoming the target of malicious actors. With new technologies coming on board in the coming years, cybersecurity will continue to be a focus. For example, the adoption of the public cloud will offer much flexibility, but also some cyber risk to healthcare entities. Some experts are predicting that 2022 will bring more data breaches, greater reliance on artificial intelligence, and more legislation aimed at protecting data privacy.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
There is a lot of data that is available for capture and analysis in the healthcare environment, but it is incredibly unstructured. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to grab data from medical images such as MRIs, CAT scans, X-rays, and other sources as well as aggregating data received through laboratory testing and patient contact can help predict the onset of illnesses and recommend courses of treatment that can contribute to better patient outcomes. Additionally, these technologies can help defuse outbreaks of contagious diseases in the future by predicting the location of such outbreaks.
Let Blue Technologies Explore Evolving Health IT Trends
Innovations in telehealth, data management, and both artificial intelligence and machine learning are exciting trends for the coming year for healthcare professionals. But adopting new technology takes a certain level of readiness if it is to be truly useful in your practice and organization.
At Blue Technologies, we have a team of IT professionals that can help you assess your current needs against your existing infrastructure and make recommendations on which technologies will give you the most return on your investment. Then, we can develop an action plan and implement these tools in a way that will make the transition as easy as possible for your staff and the patients you serve.
Take advantage of cutting-edge health IT technology. Contact a Blue Technologies consultant and explore how our suite of IT solutions can help your healthcare organization thrive.