Though the trends in healthcare change every year, the changes can never be so drastic as now, third-year into Covid. Some of the same problems that plagued healthcare organizations when it first began are still present. Although the times are rough, the healthcare industry has seen a massive influx of investment, innovation, and new entrants from the technology, telecommunications, and consumer sectors. In 2021 alone, $44 billion was raised globally in health innovation – twice as much as in 2020 – and acquisitions of health and health tech companies increased by 50%.
The healthcare industry is in disruption mode, from the outside and the inside. So, what are the healthcare trends a healthcare professional should watch out for in 2022? Let's discuss!
Telehealth is the way forward
The percentage of healthcare consultations conducted remotely increased from 0.1 percent to 43.5 percent during the first months of the pandemic. It would have been challenging to raise those numbers exponentially, but according to research done by Deloitte, most consumers are satisfied with their visits and say they will use this type of care again.
From 2019 to early 2020, the percentage of consumers who used virtual visits increased from 15% to 19%; by April 2020, it had risen to 28%. Even after COVID-19, an average of 80% of respondents expect to return for another virtual visit.
Gaining the trust of patients who still feel like an in-person checkup is critical to their care is one of the biggest challenges healthcare providers would face going forward.
Automating routine tasks
Although it might be possible in the future, Robots cannot provide care in 2022! But, they can help you get off the boredom of doing routine tasks. Extremely skilled healthcare professionals spending an excessive amount of time on mundane tasks is one of the pressing sources of stress and burnout in healthcare. It diverts their attention away from the patient.
We now have the tools to automate such tasks, relieving their burden and allowing them to focus on patient care, thanks to the rise of AI in healthcare.
After a long day of treating patients, physicians may spend up to two hours reporting those cases. AI could reduce this strain by auto-logging different parts of the treatment, allowing physicians to devote their complete focus to patient care.
Streamlining nursing workflow
With a tightening labor market, healthcare providers have faced massive staffing issues. Staff members are calling in sick while hospitals are grappling with increasing turnover and widespread burnout. According to a McKinsey & Company survey from May 2021, 22% of nurses were considering leaving their current job within the year.
Moreover, traveling agencies are driving up wages by luring nurses away from traditional jobs with significantly higher pay, posing a challenge that providers hope to overcome sooner rather than later.
Nurses were already burned out and stressed before the pandemic, but the outbreak brought their plight to light. The healthcare industry must focus on deploying technologies and workflows that reduce stress and make nurses' jobs easier.
Patient care simulation and Digital twins
What are digital twins? A digital twin is a digital replica of a physical product, process, or ecosystem that can be used to run virtual simulations, with data used to update and change the digital copy to reflect real-world changes. The concept behind a digital twin is to show us what may happen if we made certain changes in real life.
This movement in healthcare includes the concept of the "virtual patient" — computer simulations of individuals used to test drugs and treatments, with the goal of shortening the time it takes to get new medicines from concept to market.
Because of its potential to assist the healthcare industry in developing treatments more rapidly and cost-effectively, digital twin technology is one of the most prominent tech developments in healthcare for 2022.
New Models of care
2022 will be a transformative year for global health. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed long-standing flaws in our healthcare systems, which broke under the strain of the health crisis. It necessitates a transition toward new care models that involve early intervention to prevent, diagnose, and cure diseases.
We would also need to leverage transformative breakthroughs to improve patient outcomes. It would increase our resilience against future shocks and help us address the unsustainable burden of disease. A more sustainable future for health is dependent on new kinds of public-private collaboration that build on the exceptional collaboration experienced during the pandemic. We need to stop thinking from the short-term mindset regarding healthcare investments and start thinking long-term.
The pandemic has helped create new unprecedented opportunities, and steps should be taken to ensure that the process made during these times does not stagnate.
These are 5 of the many trends which might define healthcare in 2022. What other trends do you think we missed out on in the blog? Let us know by joining our global community of healthcare professionals here - mymedicalpanel.com.
Healthcare professionals can join my medical panel to participate in paid healthcare surveys and earn honoraria for their valuable contribution. We cater to healthcare professionals from more than 150 specialties and have distributed honoraria worth over $15 Mn to date.