The healthcare industry has come a long way since its inception a few years back. Long gone are those days when each process in healthcare was running manually. Today, the situation is different. All thanks to the advancement in technology and the wave of digitization, healthcare is experiencing a paradigm shift in its processes like never before.
It is a matter of immense pride that today we have the robots performing surgeries, taking care of elderly people, and most of all, helping doctors in more precise decision making. In other words, healthcare has come a long way in understanding the needs of the patients and offering them solutions that are more directed towards their problem and are more precise.
In spite of such an achievement that we claim today, the healthcare industry has a lot to look forward to in terms of care services. Not only are healthcare costs a lot in terms of the services being provided but also we don’t have proper treatments for every ailment and disease that the population encounters.
Persisting Problems in the Healthcare Industry
One of the biggest examples of the shortcomings of the healthcare industry is finding a cure to newer problems within the population. Let’s take the case of the coronavirus in itself. Today, the COVID 19 virus has brought the entire world to a halt due to its rapid spread among the population. People are being asked to stay in their homes by the governments and step out only if necessary.
Even as the situation gets better in some parts of the world, people are scared to resume back to daily lives where they used to go to work, eat outside, and enjoy a healthy social life. And this is because of the threat of catching the virus and health issues. Therefore, until the vaccine comes out there are hardly any chances that life would return to normal as it was in the pre-COVID era.
On the other hand, it’s already been more than half a year that scientists and medical experts all over the world are trying to come up with a vaccine that addresses the pandemic and helps people become immune to it. Even though some positive results have started to pour in, there are chances that the testing trials and distribution of the vaccine will take no less than five to eight months more.
Not only does this mean that the costs of treatment will be escalating only further until then, but also that the patient’s health will be put to risk. And now that the pandemic has already affected millions of people all over the world and caused losses in life, the situation couldn’t have been worse.
Evolving Role of Technology: Real Time Data and Artificial Intelligence
The point is that even with the best of technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics in the picture, it is extremely challenging to find a solution for the current crisis. And not only about the pandemic but also for long term diseases such as cancer, we are still in the way of developing cures and not yet there. This is even though these diseases have existed for decades now.
Therefore, the role of technology has to evolve from sharing inputs in the hindsight to a more proactive role. For this reason, the healthcare industry has real time data and artificial intelligence to the rescue.
The impact of real time data doesn’t only come for this special case of the pandemic but the overall care of services being imparted in the healthcare industry. Imagine the healthcare costs that would come down due to the information racing the right sources in real time. This would also directly impact the decision making of medical experts and help deliver precise care services.
As for the COVID 19 pandemic, governments all across the world are finding real time data as the key to battling against the pandemic. This is especially helping them in rapid contact tracking to contain the spread of the virus. The real time data that is flowing in through the government’s mobile applications such as the Aarogya Setu app has helped reopen the economy and access the challenges that many come in the way more precisely.
More accurately when combines with artificial intelligence, Real-time data analytics can help in accelerated workflows, better utilization of asset’s and more importantly streamlined processes in the healthcare industry. Because one of the most challenging aspects of the healthcare system in uncertainty, the necessity of real time data integration with an intelligent solutions such as AI becomes even more prominent.
While the traditional healthcare industry often operates in the hindsight, the new approach is more data-driven and making decisions in real time. While the process seems us to the healthcare system, it is also coming from a push from the consumers.
Understand it this way, people are already accustomed to processing information in real time. They find it more than convenient to process transactions anytime and from anywhere they wish. Similarly, when it comes to the healthcare they want no exception. The delivery of care services must change from the traditional patient-doctor to the one where patients have a greater say in their treatment.
Real time data combined with artificial intelligence also brings the surge in care based services that are otherwise neglected in the traditional healthcare system. Not only does it bring down costs but also focuses more on quality services being imparted that mere services being provided to patient and charging based on that, When real time data is provided to the right stakeholders, precision medical care can be delivered to the population along with a better balance in services.
