In terms of medical innovation, the past few years have been quite an eye-opener. We’ve seen artificial intelligence squeeze into the role of frontline health workers, and big data analytics getting an even bigger role to play in preventative care. As the curtains close on the year, this brings hope and curiosity as to what lies ahead. If you’re eager to learn about emerging healthcare trends that are set to take 2024 by storm, Aura Health is here with answers. We searched high, low, and deep to bring you some revolutionary discoveries. So let’s count them down:
1) Expansion of RPM use cases
While remote patient monitoring or RPM has been around for a while now, especially gaining importance due to the pandemic, we are beginning to see exciting and new ways in which medical workflows leverage RPM systems.
In fact, we’re witnessing the use of RPM technology in areas other than that for which is primarily intended. Traditionally implored for cardiovascular illness and a few other traditional chronic diseases, RPM is now finding new applications across healthcare settings such as:
- Mental health: With 40% of US adults confessing to experiencing mental anguish since the pandemic, it’s easy to see why physicians are putting RPM to work for this purpose.
- Pediatric care: Physicians are also leveraging RPM for managing and treating social, mental, and physical health challenges for infants, toddlers, and even teenagers.
- Predictive analytics: For example, by integrating artificial intelligence into our RPM at Aura Health, our technology can now pinpoint high-risk patients to lower the risk of adverse events.
Overall, we’re continuously pushing the envelope with RPM in the hopes of eventually penetrating every facet of care.
2) Connected inhalers
Through smart speakers like Alexa and Siri that help us manage our homes, we are already tapping into the power of the IoT. In healthcare, IoT, however, is being used for more critical tasks such as providing connectivity technologies for smart inhalers.
Sometimes branded digital inhalers, these breathing aids look just like your traditional ones but with a key difference. Connected inhalers can link up with a patient’s electronic device through Bluetooth or via a mobile app. Then, it can record important data such as:
- Location of the patient during each use
- Date of use
- Time of use
Overall, smart inhalers see to it that the patient doesn’t miss or repeat doses, therefore leading to more positive outcomes.
In fact, connected inhalers might be a key ally in the fight against asthma fatalities, with studies approximating that the technology might help to prevent up to 66% of such deaths.
3) AI in healthcare
Let’s face it, any discussion about the healthcare trends of 2024 would not be complete without a mention of artificial in healthcare. With this market exhibiting an astonishing CAGR of 37% through to 2030, the numbers strongly indicate that it will be another strong year for AI in health in 2024.
But that’s not the biggest question. The key question here is: what are the applications of AI in healthcare in 2024? Well, here are a few examples:
- AI-assisted arrhythmia scoring, which will help technicians to sift through RPM data more effortlessly and accurately, to not just pick out an arrhythmia but even categorize it as well.
- Primary care through chatbots. Thanks to natural language processing and machine learning technology, chatbots today are the new front-line of customer service in healthcare, helping to settle patient queries around the clock. This is a trend that will certainly carry on.
- AI-powered surgeries- collaborative robots are also now stepping into the surgery room as well. They help you secure patient safety by negating accidental movements and even taking up the scalpel as well.
Just to build up on the last point, we have in fact seen AI-powered robotics take the lead without human assistance. For example, researchers at Johns Hopkins University were able to program a robot that performed laparoscopic surgery all by itself.
4) Personalization of care
In 2024, Aura Health also expects the intensification of efforts toward care personalization. This involves a care model that delivers care depending on a patient’s unique needs or wishes. By essential handing over full control to the patient, personalized care can open up care pathways that eventually improve:
- Clinical workflow efficiency
- Care satisfaction for patients
- Cost-efficiency for all stakeholders
- Healthcare Access
- Patient literacy and so on.
In order to realize care personalization, medical facilities are tapping into the combined power of cloud computing technologies, virtual care, and AI-powered big data analytics. They’re helping to create custom disease treatment and management plans that are realizing multi-fold benefits such as lower admission rates and faster recovery for patients.
5) The rise of nanomedicine
You may be familiar with nanotechnology, which entails the manipulation of individual molecules and atoms. Now, nanomedicine refers to a more specific application of this technology in healthcare.
By engineering molecules and atoms at the tiniest leverage, scientists are creating nanomedicine which allows for more targeted drug delivery compared to conventional medication.
Overall, nanomedicine is being leveraged in healthcare in the following ways:
- Nanodiagnosis; Technicians are starting to pair medical imaging solutions like MRIs and ultrasounds to improve the clarity of images.
- Nanotherpay: This entails the use of nanoparticles to create tiny drugs that can reach precise areas of your body, thereby improving drug efficacy.
- Regenerative medicine: In the future, nanomedicine may be used to regrow nerves. For now, though, facilities that do use them, implore nanomedicine to repair damaged tissues.
A few more specific examples of nanomedicine in action include the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which are among some of the most effective COVID-19 vaccines.
Hold onto your hats because 2024 will be a wild ride!
If there’s one thing you can always count it’s that the brilliance of the human mind will never be stifled. With the innovation in healthcare showing no signs of letting up, instead promising to get even more exciting, you can expect 2024 will be a year of great and positive change for medical workflows everywhere. And who better to keep you in the know than Aura Health Solutions, your frontline healthcare partner with a knack for technology that keeps on the cutting edge of the curve? So if you haven’t already, be sure to follow our blog and share this post.
