1. Internet of things: According to MarketResearch.com, the healthcare IoT market is slated to reach $117 billion by 2020. As a disruptive technology, IoT facilitates the capture of real-time data through smart sensors and wearable devices, exchanges the information captured in the cloud and with BI/Analytical tools, analyze information flows much faster than conventional means. The massive use of embedded systems is ushering in a “connect everywhere, anytime” culture alongside parallel trends in home and industrial automation, and smart cities where GPS functionalities are woven into every move. The consequences are numerous: from remote monitoring to ATM-like machines that can dispense medicine after checking with providers thousands of miles away.
2. Increased use of BI and analytics: Healthcare BI and Analytics, a market projected to exceed $18.7 billion by 2020, is undergoing a quiet transformation as demand increases for tools and solutions that can fill the gap in visualizing real business challenges and solutions through existing healthcare data. According to a PwC survey, it was found that more than 95% of CEOs of healthcare companies are looking for ways to better leverage data. Tomorrow’s medical devices will be incomplete if they can’t use historical data for predictive analytics and other data to solve existing challenges facing providers. Tableau has been noted as a very intuitive tool for visualizing random data to spot patterns and anomalies.
3. Mobility: Increased use and reliance on smartphones is fueling a condition where doctors and patients require access to information on their mobile devices and tablets; the key focus is commitment. Many medical supply stores are focusing on offering mobile healthcare solutions and applications that will continue to be more creative in the future. In the long term, mobile devices in association with telemedicine will facilitate complex operating procedures and drug dispensing, allowing care providers to care for their patients from remote locations. 24-hour emergency care would be provided.
4. Increased attention to security and surveillance: Considering the large number of devices connected to the web and the cloud, secure access to data points will become a challenge in the future. Medical devices must be equipped with affordable chips and sensors with the ability to read biometric information, for example, features that would enable greater access security.
5.3D printing: 3D printing technologies are becoming more and more popular and even affordable. They have immense reach in the medical device industry, as they can be used for everything from preclinical testing to new lab innovation (reducing verification time), impromptu training, and sales demos.
6. Emergence of multipurpose medical devices: Increasingly, medical devices are expected to perform multiple roles. For example, ambulance care units will have access to devices that combine defibrillators with suction kits, blood pressure cuffs, and pulse oximeters in one inflatable unit that can save time and space for delivering emergency care.
From the consumer’s point of view, the increasing availability of the latest trends, as mentioned above, would translate into less frequent visits to the doctor, shifting the responsibility for effective medical care directly to the patients (although this is by no means, would mean that patients should not access their providers directly).
