Tag: healthcare applications

Artificial Intelligence is a multi-talented assistant and has proven its worth in the healthcare industry. Healthcare organizations have found innumerable ways to use AI, from record maintenance to patient assistance. It has completely reshaped how doctors diagnose, treat, and monitor their patients. It is also capable of drastically improving research methods, which leads to unmatched accuracy in diagnoses. By integrating AI into hospital settings and clinics, healthcare systems can potentially become smarter, faster, and more efficient worldwide. This blog will help you explore the immense possibilities of AI in healthcare!

How is AI Used in Healthcare?

Healthcare AI, valued at $11 billion in 2021, is expected to be worth $187 billion in 2030.

This massive increase will mean that we will continue to see exponential growth in how medical providers and organizations in the healthcare industry operate. So, how are they using this power tool? Here are some ways.

1. Easing Administrative Workflow

Artificial Intelligence can process and analyze extensive amounts of clinical documentation within a few minutes. This enables professionals to spot disease markers and trends that could be overlooked with manual analysis. AI can automate mundane tasks such as data entry, claim processing, and appointment scheduling, freeing up time to focus more on patient care and the management cycle. Artificial intelligence also eradicates the risk of human error by offering a faster way to analyze and review health records, medical imaging, and test results.

2. Disease Detection

Machine learning (ML) is an area of AI that reads patterns and allows a machine to learn and apply the learned experience to similar scenarios. It enables physicians, researchers, and patients to identify impending diseases. Researchers and practitioners claim that machine-learning-based disease diagnosis is inexpensive and time-efficient. Furthermore, a current study proves that these diagnoses have an accuracy rate of 90%. Diseases like dementia, heart failure, breast cancer, and pneumonia can be identified with ML. The emergence of this fascinating technology in the diagnosis domain illustrates the utility of AI in medical fields.

3. Automate Documentation, Store, and Organize Health Data

Documentation and organization processes are monotonous. They can be very tiresome and boring, leading to human errors. This process can be automated by Natural Language Processing (NLP), which interprets and uses human language to perform tasks. NLP can improve patient care with accurate diagnosis, streamlined clinical procedures, and customized services. It can also help analyze medical records and suggest improved treatment methods. The most common use of NLP in healthcare is to analyze and classify medical records.

4. Accelerate Drug Discovery and Development

AI assistance to the pharmaceutical industry can improve the overall life cycle of products and make great leaps in medical research. It can be integrated into various tasks, such as drug discovery, drug repurposing, clinical trials, and product management. This reduces the workload on human employees while simultaneously achieving targets in a short period of time. Artificial intelligence can identify hit-and-lead compounds in drug research. This allows it to provide quicker verification of the drug target and optimize the overall drug structure.

5. Medical Inventory Auditing

Inventory management is a strenuous task that requires close attention and constant supervision. However, when you integrate AI into inventory management, you can curate a seamless flow of products. 

Computer vision can help in this regard. It is a type of AI that can analyze images and perform tasks that replicate human behavior. With computer vision, medical institutions can automate their auditing process and reduce errors in shipments of surgical supplies.

Artificial intelligence can also assist medical organizations with product evaluation, prioritizing inventory tasks, and allocating inventory information across the organization network. AI in the medical industry can also automate small tasks such as the transcription of bills and the recommendation of products based on a surgeon’s order history. Even this simple automation can bring overall accuracy to the functioning of inventory.

6. Virtual Nursing Assistants 

A virtual assistant is a manifestation of AI that provides 24/7 support and monitoring for patients. It consists of AI-driven chatbots that further enhance patient engagement and adherence to treatment schedules. The overall market for virtual healthcare assistants is growing at a CAFR of 30% from 2023 to 2033. This says it all!

Surgical robots are another brilliant invention powered by artificial intelligence. They can perform minor surgeries with a high level of proficiency. These robots can also collect patients’ previous medical records and make appropriate suggestions to surgeons. Medical researchers and scientists are now striving to create an AI robot fully capable of performing complex surgeries.

7. Personalized Fitness Coach

We have all encountered health and fitness monitors, such as smartwatches and apps that can track and analyze our medical histories. These monitors are also powered by artificial intelligence. They store real-time data sets, and they will alert the user when they recognize a suspicious pattern. 

AI can also transform limited customer service into a highly scalable, personal service that provides multifaceted recommendations through real-time conversational AI. On a larger scale, AI solutions, such as data applications, ML algorithms, and deep learning algorithms, can also help healthcare professionals. They can analyze large amounts of data and offer suggestions before professionals make decisions.

8. Patient Prioritization System

According to a recent study, 83% of patients report poor communication as the worst part of their experience in healthcare centers. This illustrates the desperate need for a clearer form of communication between patients and healthcare service providers. AI technologies like natural language processing, predictive analytics, and speech recognition can monumentally bridge this gap.

Clinical AI is also created to focus specifically on patient care. It uses various subtypes of AI to improve patient treatment. Predictive analytics is another helpful area of AI. It predicts potential health complications by analyzing patterns in a patient’s medical history and current health data. Since this AI takes a proactive approach, it ultimately leads to better patient outcomes and reduced healthcare expenditures.

9. Less-invasive Surgeries

AI-enabled applications can assist in the development of advanced guidance and navigation systems. They improve the accuracy and precision of surgical procedures. AI-enabled applications can also be used to work around sensitive organs and tissues. They can help reduce blood loss, infection risk, and post-surgery pain. AI-powered image analysis tools can also be used to spot surgical instruments and structures within the body. It can analyze past surgeries, allowing the surgeon to be well-prepared beforehand. This creates a more personalized approach to surgical planning and execution.

What are the Top Benefits of Using AI in Healthcare?

The benefits of AI in healthcare are manifold. However, its application has reaped the most benefits in fraud prevention, healthcare diagnosis, and preventive care. Here are more details: 

1. Fraud Prevention

Integrating AI can help recognize suspicious patterns in insurance claims. Sometimes, people will bill for costly services or procedures that are not performed, or they will undertake unnecessary tests that take advantage of insurance payments. Another famous type of false claim is unbundling. This is when people provide billing for individual steps of a procedure rather than the procedure as a whole. These scams can be detected by predictive analytics.

2. Increased Efficiency in Healthcare Diagnoses

A study in Harvard’s School of Public Health stated that using AI to derive diagnoses may reduce treatment costs by up to 50% and simultaneously improve health outcomes by 40%. Other studies suggest that deep learning AI technology can accurately predict breast and skin cancer, even better than experienced doctors.

3. Better Health Monitoring and Preventive Care

AI can help providers gather information from multiple wearables and monitoring devices. It can then be stored and analyzed to provide data-driven insights from many people. With AI-integrated health monitors, patients and caregivers can communicate better. These monitors can be wearables, sensors, or telehealth. They are used essentially by patients to identify symptoms early on and provide timely changes. They come in two distinct forms: AI chatbots, virtual assistants, and ambient/intelligent care. 

What are the Types of AI Used in Healthcare?

Many forms of AI have been successfully implemented in the healthcare industry. Some of these are listed below:

1. Machine Learning

Machine learning algorithms can identify patterns and form predictions by processing clinical data. This form of AI helps analyze patient records, discover new therapies, and perform medical imaging. Hence, it makes life easier for healthcare professionals and reduces costs for the patient. ML can precisely diagnose diseases, personalize treatments, and identify any changes in vital signs.

2. Deep Learning

Deep learning is a subset of AI used for tasks like speech recognition through natural language processing. This representation-based learning method is obtained by composing simple and nonlinear molecules from a lower level into a representation at a higher, more abstract level. Deep learning models are generally integrated with computer vision, speech recognition, and natural language processing to get the best results.

3. Natural Language Processing

Natural language processing (NLP) enhances patient care by improving diagnosis accuracy, streamlining clinical processes, and providing customized services. NLP can accurately diagnose illnesses by extracting important data from medical records. It can also determine the appropriate treatments and medications for each patient. This form of AI has become a powerful weapon in the modern healthcare industry.

4. Generative AI

Generative AI is a part of machine learning technology. It is trained with old data, and when commanded, it provides new data similar to the legacy data. It is used primarily for image and speech synthesis. Generative AI has untapped potential. It has the power to automate entire systems, enhance clinical decision-making processes, and even administrative processes. Generative AI shows great potential despite being scarcely implemented.

What is the Future of AI in Healthcare?

AI in the healthcare market was worth over 11 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. The next prediction is that this market will outdo itself and reach around 188 billion U.S. dollars by 2030. This elucidates the drastic impact that AI has on the healthcare industry.

Artificial intelligence offers us many opportunities to help reduce human error and assist medical professionals. It holds heavy promises of enhancing patient experience, tightening safety, and reducing costs associated with healthcare services. As these tools and technologies continue to develop, the potential to use AI will exponentially boom. 

Future AI tools will have the ability to automate or augment the workload and further free up humans to spend more time on other important tasks. Deep learning AI may progress to detect diseases faster, provide better-customized treatment plans, and even completely automate certain processes, such as drug discovery or diagnostics. With such limitless potential, artificial intelligence is sure to illustrate a future filled with advancements, enhanced health outcomes, and optimized patient experiences.

How can Fingent Help Leverage AI for Better Healthcare Services?

Fingent is a top-notch technology solution provider with around 800+ successful projects. We have loyal clients across four continents. With our custom software development experts, you can develop intricate, truly innovative, AI-powered, custom healthcare software applications. These applications will give you a competitive advantage, ample time-to-market, ROI, and clinical precision. 

We have positive feedback and strong bonds with an eminent list of healthcare clients, including the NHS, Novita Healthcare, Mundipharma, and Casenet, LLC, among others. As the world progresses forward with artificial intelligence, it is time for you to choose the right technological partner for this journey. Contact our experts today to discuss your AI project now! 

The world of technology keeps evolving and waits for no one, so it is our responsibility to keep up with it rather than fall behind. The healthcare industry has for a long time been using software development systems to monitor and ease work-lifestyles; now it is time to customize this software to make them function and run exactly the way you need it to. Custom software development has made life and business significantly easier for innumerable industries and is poised to revolutionize the Healthcare Industry as well. This article will tell you all you need to know about it.

Importance Of Healthcare Software Development  

Healthcare software systems provide innumerable benefits to hospital management, from improved productivity to reduced medication errors. It streamlines the workflow, enhances data quality, drastically reduces errors, and boosts patient experiences. Rising technological advancements also help with hospital administration and operations. 

Benefits Of Customized Healthcare Software Development 

The overall benefit of using customized healthcare software is overall progress and betterment. This should be reason enough to convince anyone to adopt custom healthcare software but if it is not, listed below are a few of the other benefits of this type of software development:

• Increased security – Thanks to the inculcation of software in healthcare, hospitals are now sending, storing, and retrieving data through the web. Custom software solutions will guarantee the safety of this personal medical data. 
• User-friendly experience – The target audience’s desired product is taken into consideration by software designers and user interface designers. Software designers can also consider specific aspects of an application to make it more alluring and interactive. 
• Customizable features – Customization is the buzzword right now, and custom software provides it like no other. Customer feedback is prioritized, and the generated product is more streamlined and efficient. Customized software will handle specific problems, and this aspect makes it attracts and brings in more loyal customers or patients. 
• Quality of diagnostics – Technology is well known for its brilliance in efficiency. Diagnostics run by a customized software solution have proven to have outstanding quality and accuracy because these solutions imbibe knowledge from innumerable sources and compare results faster. Hence, healthcare providers can proffer improved healthcare if they rely on custom software solutions. 

Read more: How Can Custom-Made Software Provide Superior Customer Service In The Healthcare Industry?

Understanding Healthcare Software Development 

Healthcare software development is the creation of any software for the healthcare sector to facilitate hospitals and improve equipment management. It also helps with administering electronic records, managing health records, providing diagnoses and treatments, improving patient care, and reducing costs. 

Healthcare software development plays an important role in everyone’s life. For doctors – it reduces paperwork and increases collaboration with other specialists. For patients – it enhances patient outreach, improves healthcare quality, and eases access to medical data. Lastly, it improves medical business management and streamlines management processes for organizations. 

Healthcare organizations, just like any other organization, have their own set of challenges that cripple them. Custom Software can address most of these challenges and fix them. 

• Cyberthreats – The skyrocketing rate of cyber security attacks threatens to endanger the personal medical data of patients and, ultimately, the reputation of a healthcare center. Custom Software can fix this with its exceptional security firewalls and customized cyber security.
• Patient Experience – When patients experience favorable care, they are more likely to heed medical advice and this is essential for better healthcare outcomes, boosting patient retention rates and lowering malpractice risk. Custom software can help here, too by enhancing the user experience and user interface by creating more interactive, customized, and enticing products. 

Key Considerations for Healthcare Software Development

Now that we have established the importance of custom healthcare software development, here are some key considerations:

1. Compliance And Security – 

Medical records are very sensitive data, and it is the responsibility of the healthcare facility to protect them carefully. Abiding by the international security laws of HIPAA, PCI, and IOS is a must, along with deft investments in specialized medical data security. Ensure that your partner conducts adequate software checkups to detect any potential vulnerability.

2. User-Centred Design – 

Customized healthcare software’s main target is its audience, so focusing on their comfort or ease is a top priority. Inclusivity of all kinds, from senior users to less literate users, is a crucial thing to keep in mind when designing an interface for the organization. Properly incorporated user-centered designs are vital for an intuitive and efficient workflow. Software Designers usually build a simple and easy-to-use user interface (UI) and a user experience (UX). 

3. Interoperability and Integration – 

Interoperability, in simple words, is the ability of a software or system to work compatibly with other products and systems. It helps facilitate organized and effective data exchange between data systems. To avoid complications with regard to personalized information or reports of customers while sharing data between systems, especially when introducing new versions of the same software to different platforms, efficient interoperability is important. 

4. Scalability and Flexibility – 

Scalability and flexibility are other critical considerations to remember. It is imperative to design a product capable of scaling up as your healthcare organization grows. Ensuring that your customized software developed is flexible and can change and segue according to wavering customer demands. 

5. Data Analytics and Insights – 

Data analytics is essentially the process of studying raw data in order to determine trends and enable enhanced decision-making.  This transformation of data done by custom software into insights can drastically leverage data to enhance decision-making, patient outcomes, and overall operational efficiency.

Read more: AI in Healthcare – Know what’s trending and what’s upcoming!

Steps in Custom Healthcare Software Development

Let’s now get into the development itself. Here are some steps to ensure that the development goes smoothly and provides the best outcomes: 

1. Requirements Gathering and Analysis – 

It is always best to make a detailed analysis of your organization, its needs, and budgets before diving into a custom software development project. Consult well-versed software designers and healthcare professionals, jot the requirement details, and communicate with your team members to obtain an unbiased perspective.

2. Design and Development – 

In this step, the analysis generated is used as input and software infrastructure for implementing software development. Software developers first draw a synopsis of the details for the application, including specific aspects such as User interfaces, System interfaces, Network and Network Requirements, and Databases. 

Following close behind the design stage is the development stage. It is the stage where coding starts and all components of the software are implemented. The use of agile methodologies and interactive interfaces to improve user satisfaction, flexibility, and feedback incorporation is crucial during this phase of development. 

3. Quality Assurance And Testing – 

The testing period begins at the end of the coding stage. Here the modules are circulated for testing. Although testing may not seem like a necessary step, skipping it will ultimately result in the downfall of software. The developed software should be tested thoroughly, and developers fix any vulnerability discovered. There are various tests that need to be conducted after coding of software; these include – functional, usability, and security testing. 

4. Deployment and Training – 

After the product has been sufficiently tested, the software is deployed into the market or organization scheme. In the case of UAT (User Acceptance Testing), a production environment is created, and the customer, along with the developers, partakes in the testing. 

Case Studies

Fingent has been a leader in custom software development for the healthcare sector and has created unmatched solutions for its clients. Here are a few examples:

A Data Analytics Solution for NHS: With the wide range of hospitals under its governance, the NHS required a data visualization tool that would help them compare healthcare performances across the hospitals and showcase the best ones. Fingent helped develop a solution that was customized to the NHS’s specific needs and designed an application with interactive visuals and real-time access to insights. 

Fingent’s portfolio includes top-notch solutions like this, including an online engagement platform for NovitaCare and a patient care solution to promote effective communication in the healthcare ecosystem. Working with clients globally, Fingent has been able to have a direct impact on simplified patient care, operational efficiency, and cost savings for healthcare providers. 

Future Trends In Healthcare Software Development 

The future evidently holds great plans for healthcare software. We have only skimmed over the uses and possibilities that technology has introduced to healthcare; there are so many more possibilities.  

1. AI in Healthcare

Artificial Intelligence is the most beneficial factor of technology for the healthcare industry. It can effortlessly mimic human cognition in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating complex medical data. AI can perform data analysis through the healthcare system and can be widely used to predict patient admissions and improve clinical workflows. 

2. IoT in Healthcare

IoT (Internet of Things) has the potential to enable healthcare professionals to supervise their patients more accurately. It can equip healthcare workers and professionals with the tools to deliver excellent care and treatment to patients. Exploiting this technology and several tech-powered wearables that enable real-time tracking, end-to-end connectivity, and remote monitoring are some of the other areas that IoT will assist.

Summary 

Healthcare Software Development benefits institution staff, patients, and administrators. Although it might seem quite diverse and may come across as a daunting task, with the right partner on your side your journey will be successful. 

Look for a partner in Fingent, and we will help you navigate the complexities and compliances that come with the development of healthcare software solutions.

Reach out to us today, and let’s get talking. 

Top Healthcare Digitalization Trends To Look For In The New Normal

Healthcare digitalization is reshaping the way we interact with healthcare professionals, share medical data or make decisions related to treatment and outcomes. There are plenty of examples that substantiate the digitalization of healthcare today, such as Artificial Intelligence-powered medical devices, telemedicine, blockchain, remote-patient monitoring, and electronic health records.

The main aim of healthcare innovation is to streamline the medical professionals’ work, optimize medical software systems, reduce human errors, improve patient outcomes, and lower costs through integrated web and mobile experiences.

Read more: The Application and Impact of Information Technology in Healthcare

Let’s look at the state of healthcare digitalization in 2021 and beyond:

1. On-demand Healthcare Will Grow

With the COVID-19 pandemic restricting many people to remain indoors, more and more patients seek on-demand healthcare. It is convenient as it helps patients seek guidance at their own time and from anywhere they need it.

DMN3 reveals that patients obtain online medical information primarily for the following reasons:

• 77% for booking medical appointments
• 47% for searching information about doctors and healthcare professionals
• 38% for searching information about hospitals and medical facilities

That said, on-demand healthcare is rising due to the growth of the gig economy. Here, freelance professionals from various industries hire themselves out per job or ‘gig’ instead of sticking to one company.

Read more: Patient Engagement Platforms: 7 Must-have Features

Many online healthcare marketplaces link doctors directly with short-term tasks, making it easier for physicians to deliver patient care in specific circumstances based on their expertise and schedule. Simply put, doctors are becoming on-demand healthcare providers to meet the changing needs of their patients in a better way.

2. Big Data Will Be Used To Improve Healthcare Management

Big data is the information gathered from various platforms such as eCommerce, social media, online transactions, and financial transactions. It helps identify patterns and trends for future use.

Read more: 5 Ways Big Data is Changing the Healthcare Industry

For healthcare, big data offers benefits such as:

• Reduced medication errors: Patient record analysis allows the healthcare software to flag any inconsistencies between a patient’s health and drug prescriptions. This alerts the health professionals and patients in case there is a potential risk of a medication error.
• Simplifying preventive care: Many recurring patients stepping into emergency rooms are “frequent flyers.” These frequent flyers account for up to 28% of clinical visits. Big data analysis helps identify these recurring patients and create preventive plans to keep them from returning.
• Improved staffing: Using big data’s predictive analysis, hospitals and clinics can estimate future admission rates enabling these facilities to allocate proper staff to deal with the patient. This will help save money and reduce emergency room waiting time, especially when a facility is understaffed.

Case Study: How did a data analytics solution help NHS gain financial, clinical, and geographical insights to improve visibility over their KPIs? Read Now! 

Big data analytics, visualization, and insights generation can improve healthcare operations management and transform the patient experience.

3. Virtual Reality Will Transform Medical Training & Care Delivery Models

Virtual Reality is one of the most outstanding healthcare digitalization trends that change the way patients are diagnosed, and medical residents are trained.

• VR in medical diagnosis & treatments: VR is increasingly used in treatment segments in healthcare, such as patient education, robotic surgery, physical and psychological therapy, etc. For instance, medical professionals can use VR to construct a 360° patient-specific video detailing how the surgery will help the patient cure and the consequent results. Virtual Reality has been found effective in treating anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and stroke.   

Case Study: Find how Fingent developed a unique mixed reality application for a leading university that enables users to identify people using facial recognition.  Download Now!

• VR for medical training: Other uses of VR technology include doctors and medical residents using VR simulations to hone their skills (learning in near-real situations) and safely plan complicated surgeries. In addition, VR headsets are used post-surgery to encourage patients to exercise and follow physiotherapies. The technology also enables autistic children to learn and navigate the world.
• Growth of VR in the medical field: From startups to established pharma companies, everyone recognizes the role of VR in healthcare. Experts estimate that by 2025 the global virtual and augmented reality in healthcare will reach $5.1 billion market value. So, if you’re a healthcare company wanting to improve your digital marketing strategy, you should consider investing in VR.

Read more: How Virtual Reality Improves The Standards Of Medical Education And Training

Virtual Reality technology offers a powerful communication channel that allows you to understand customers’ needs better and virtually engage them with your products and services.

4. Wearable Medical Devices Will Enjoy A Wider Market

Another major healthcare digitalization trend is companies collecting their health data from medical devices such as wearables. Previously, most people would check in with their doctors only when something went wrong and were used to undergoing physical check-ups once a year. However, technology is changing that. Today, people highly focus on preventive maintenance and are interested in knowing about their health status frequently. This trend forces several healthcare companies to invest in wearable technology devices that allow patients or family members to track health vitals and seek medical aid when needed. Wearable medical devices enable up-to-date monitoring of high-risk patients and determine the likelihood of any severe health risk.

Experts estimate that the wearable medical device market value will cross USD 27,200 mn by 2023.

Following are some of the widely used wearable devices:

• Exercise trackers (Google Fit, Fitbit, etc.)
• Heart rate sensors (Samsung Heart Rate Sensor, Pulse Sensor, etc.)
• Sweat meters: to monitor blood sugar levels of diabetics
• Oximeters: to monitor the amount of oxygen carried in the blood

Wearable devices in healthcare offer the following benefits:

• Personalized healthcare experience: Medical devices help patients improve their health and give them a sense of ownership regarding personal healthcare management.
• Insurance pricing: Wearable devices provide insurers with insights that enable them to rate a patient’s risk for illness more accurately.
• Insurance incentives: Wearable devices allow patients to take preventive measures to improve their health. Such patients are more likely to obtain lower insurance premiums.
• Gamification opportunities: Fitness watches can help create competitive goals for users to achieve through diet, nutrition, and exercise.

Case Study: Read more about how Fingent helped create a fitness Regimen app for trainers.

5. Healthcare AI Investments Will Increase

By 2025, the healthcare AI-enabled tools market is expected to exceed $34 billion globally. This indicates that healthcare AI investments will peak soon as Artificial Intelligence is set to transform various segments in medicine.

AI-powered chatbots and virtual health assistants fulfill many roles in the healthcare industry, such as customer service representatives, diagnostic tools, or even therapists. Hence AI in healthcare is gaining immense popularity. According to a report published by MarketsandMarkets, the global healthcare chatbots market is estimated to reach $314.3 million by 2023.

Read more: 5 Leading Chatbot Use Cases Explained with Real-life Examples

That said, we can witness the real power of AI in diverse areas such as medical imaging, drug discovery, precision medicine, and genomics. For example, the first-ever drug designed by AI is showing some promise to help patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. The AI-made drug molecule, DSP-1181, is in clinical trials currently. Researchers and scientists expect that the use of AI will make drug development faster and more efficient.

Overall, AI is projected to bring USD 150 billion by 2026 in annual savings for the US healthcare economy. As start-ups are lapping up the opportunity, the number of active AI start-ups has increased 14 times since 2000.

Why Keep A Close Eye On These Healthcare Digitalization Trends

These five healthcare digitalization trends will spill over in the future as the industry will innovate and adapt to meet the patients’ demands. As a result, organizations that embrace healthcare digitalization will see dividends sooner.

Fingent helps you navigate the digital healthcare space and adapt to the ‘Next Normal’ with our transformative experiences. Our custom healthcare software solutions have helped many of the leading healthcare providers worldwide. Contact us to learn more about how your healthcare organization or clinic can leverage healthcare digitalization effectively.

How is Augmented Reality Set to Transform The Future of Healthcare?

Augmented Reality in healthcare has emerged as one of the most exciting technologies expected to grow and transform medicine and surgery. In 2020, Augmented Reality saw unprecedented growth. According to a report by AR Insider, 598 million AR units were active at the end of 2020. By 2024, the total number of active AR devices is estimated to be 1.73 billion, states the report.

Augmented Reality allows us to experience the real-life environment around us with a digital augmentation overlaid on it. It works by integrating digital information into the user’s environment in real-time. In AR, the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced using computer-generated capabilities. AR includes graphics, effects, sounds, text, and touch feedback to improve the user experience. Due to its versatility, AR is becoming more accessible and affordable for medical imaging, medical education, dentistry, and training nurses. Leading examples of AR in healthcare include AccuVein, ARnatomy, VIPAR, and VA-​ST.  

Read more: Impact Of Augmented Reality In Education Industry

In this post, we will look specifically at the future of Augmented Reality in the healthcare industry.

Augmented Reality helps examine the human body without the need for visualization using displays and sensors. Augmented Reality is used to educate patients today. For example, doctors can use AR to explain surgical procedures or health conditions. Google Glass with AR was first used by Dr. Rafael Grossman during a surgery. 

Here’s why augmented reality in healthcare is a boon for medical professionals, future medical research, and education.

Read more: How Virtual Reality Improves the Standards of Medical Education and Training

1. AR in patient care

• Most patients are unable to explain their symptoms to the doctor. However, Augmented Reality helps patients address their concerns. Patients can use AR to check their symptoms and the state of their health. Also, doctors can show the patients the effects of their current lifestyle and help them make positive changes.
• Using 3D AR technology, patients can see how the drug works within their body instead of reading the long list of drug descriptions of prescribed medicine.
• New mothers have a tough time during the initial days of breastfeeding. A Melbourne-based company in association with the Australian Breastfeeding Association conducted a Google Glass test. The mothers could easily share their problems with experts and find solutions while breastfeeding. Thanks to the AR-enabled technology of Google Glass, this was possible. The lactating mothers were able to communicate their problems in real-time and seek medical aid quickly.
• AR enables storing life-saving information on custom apps. For instance, Radboud University of Netherlands has developed an AED4EU AR-driven mobile app. This app tells you the exact location of automated external defibrillators. So, during an emergency, you can access a crucial life-saving piece of information. 

2. AR for surgeons and nurses

• Sometimes, it is tough to find the vein to draw blood from the hand or to inject intravenous shots. Thanks to AR hand-held scanner technology, a nurse can easily see the vein to draw blood or give a jab. The patient also feels relieved to have found the vein in the first attempt. Not only does it save time, but it ensures that the elderly or children are not faced with undue coercion while taking the shot.
• Surgeons can leverage 3D AR to operate with precision. It helps prevent unnecessary risks and increases the success rate of many complex surgeries. 
• Surgeons can use image reconstruction technology to reconstruct any tumor. It enables surgeons to view X-rays in real-time and locate a tumor anywhere in the body and operate on it. Simply put, AR helps reduce the difficulty level and risk to a great extent.

While everybody knows the importance of staying healthy, most people take their health for granted. AR can be used to diagnose the human body to understand the current state of health. Dietitians and nutritionists can use the learnings to encourage and persuade people to bring desirable changes to their lifestyles. Using AR, you can make boring activities like a morning walk or jog more pleasurable. AR apps such as “Zombies, Run!” helps convert your daily running task to a game format. It can push people to take care of their health more seriously.

AR and the future of healthcare

The future AR market is more likely to resemble the present smartphone market. We will be our own doctors, which will enhance self-care. Suppose every wearable device or smartphone ends up representing a doctor. In that case, the healthcare costs can be lowered significantly, several thousands of lives can be saved, and our living standards can be improved tremendously.

Of course, we will still need medical professionals and specialists to diagnoses specific cases. However, instant AR telehealth devices and remote patient monitoring tools will make the experience of visiting a doctor less intimidating.

Mental health depression is one of the key fields of medicine that is often overlooked. By integrating AR with artificial intelligence (AI), the ability to detect and identify voice tones, facial expressions, and physical behaviors can help doctors and families identify any signs of mental illness or depression in real-time. Brain Power, a start-up, enables people with autism to learn life skills and measure their learning progress.

Watch Video: How AR can be a powerful learning tool in the future

Augmented Reality in healthcare is witnessing several mergers and acquisitions due to an influx of software, hardware manufacturers, mobile data, and voice businesses.

Several AR companies are also addressing regulatory and privacy concerns to become successful in the healthcare space. This will benefit AR-assisted surgeries, in-patient behavioral and rehabilitation programs, and staff training. By 2025, people will be able to analyze their health in real-time through AR-based apps, giving them a snapshot of how unhealthy lifestyles would affect their bodies and help them take precautionary measures to maintain good health.

To sum up

Summing up, we can say that augmented reality in healthcare is a game-changer and a boon for the industry.

We at Fingent develop tailored healthcare AR systems and applications that help improve quality of care, cost and meet your healthcare requirements by automating the process of collecting and measuring enormous amounts of healthcare data. Contact us today for more details!

How is AI Facilitating Healthcare Innovation Over Years

Today Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used to enhance and improve all spheres of our lives. Artificial Intelligence in medicine is truly life-altering. The technology is used to solve complex healthcare challenges today. AI in medicine helps interpret the data obtained by diagnosing several chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s, and cancer. Automated systems, tools, and algorithms allow healthcare professionals to minimize errors and control disease progression. 

Artificial Intelligence in medicine has considerably advanced two fields: diagnosis and clinical decision-making. The implementation of AI in medicine enables physicians to minimize intra-observer variability and inter-observer variability. It facilitates the interpretation of diagnostic results with high accuracy and speed. 

A real-life example: Chest X-rays are among the most common imaging modalities read and interpreted by radiologists in hospitals today. Despite their widespread use, the modalities are difficult to interpret due to their low resolution. The AI models developed by IBM Research Center in California can read X-rays, and their performance is at par with the resident radiologists. 

This blog explains how Artificial Intelligence in medicine has been transforming healthcare in the past and present and how it can benefit us in the future.

Read more: Innovative Ways To Leverage Patient-Generated Health Data 

How AI has transformed healthcare in the past

In the past, Artificial Intelligence focused primarily on the development of computerized machines that were capable of making inferences or decisions that only humans can make. In 1966, Shakey- “the first electronic person” was developed. It was a mobile robot capable of interpreting instructions. Unfortunately, reduced funding and lack of interest pushed Artificial Intelligence in the medical industry into a phase popularly referred to as “AI winter.” Thankfully, that was not the end. 

How is AI transforming the present

Artificial Intelligence in medicine has crossed numerous milestones after the bleak “AI winter.” The present generation has witnessed a paradigm shift across patient treatment, clinical diagnosis, and decision-making. Armed with large amounts of data, doctors are now more capable of providing effective treatment to their patients. AI has revamped analytic methods and changed clinical decision-making techniques. 

Read more: 7 Major Impacts of Technology in Healthcare

Increased data volumes enable decision-makers to gain unparalleled insights in all stages of treatment, such as diagnosis, treatment variability, care process, and patient outcomes. According to an analysis by Accenture, Artificial Intelligence in medicine can save 150 billion dollars for the US economy by 2026! 

Here’s how AI is transforming medicine and improving patient outcomes.

1. Electronic health records

A CDC survey revealed that nearly 75% of healthcare providers trusted their EHR to improve patient care. AI can make the existing EHR system more intelligent and flexible. AI can improve data discovery and personalize treatment recommendations. 

When used with virtual medical assistants, a practitioner can retrieve information from EHRs without becoming a victim of clinical burnout. Thus, AI in EHR can improve both clinical outcomes and clinicians’ quality of life. 

2. Medical imaging diagnostics

Medical imaging developers have discovered numerous ways to use Artificial Intelligence in medicine to detect and diagnose a wide range of diseases. These developments range from automating workflows to improving processing speed. 

While AI imaging may seem expensive, it saves a vast amount of capital spent on invasive disease treatment and prolonged hospital stays by detecting the disease at an early stage. Ai also improves the accuracy of screenings for conditions by helping doctors in early diagnosis. The advent of molecular imaging allows doctors to diagnose an ailment at the cellular level leading to accurate treatment, better patient outcomes, and decreased mortality and morbidity. 

3. Virtual health assistance

Virtual health assistance enhances outcomes by cutting short hospital stays, reducing readmission rates, and improving the patient experience, especially among chronically ill patients. Combining AI with healthcare wearables helps streamline telemedicine and improve patient outcomes. 

A Virtual Health Assistant is developed to manage chronic diseases. It collects information about a patient every time he/she visits a doctor. It can be programmed to perform health screenings and send the results to the doctor. Each healthcare facility may choose to have a tailored virtual health strategy. This will help integrate appropriate healthcare platforms and technologies into the delivery model. 

4. Proactive medical care

Conventional medical treatment involved treating the patient after detecting the disease. This was called ‘reactive medical care.’ Thankfully, AI brought in a significant shift turning reactive medical care into ‘proactive medical care.’ AI-enabled proactive medical care includes studying patients’ medical history to locate high-risk markets for various diseases. Then they are monitored for any changes. Once an alarming change is detected, the application suggests medical intervention.

These apps encourage the patient to be an active participant in their personal healthcare. These can be extremely helpful or even life-saving in conditions such as palliative care, congenital heart disease, and diabetes management. Such proactive medical care enables the patient to take care of oneself’s daily routine, including emergencies.

Read more: The Application and Impact of Information Technology in Healthcare 

Future of AI in medical industry

The journey of Artificial Intelligence in the medical industry has just begun. It has significantly changed patient experience, clinicians’ practice, and pharmaceuticals. AI has found its way from our smartwatches to the supply chain. The future of AI in medicine includes everything from answering the phone to therapeutic drug and device design, making clinical diagnoses and treatment plans, and even conversing with patients. Here are two examples:

1. Drug discovery

AI solutions for the medical industry can identify new potential therapies from vast information available on existing medicines. These will help healthcare providers in redesigning treatments that target new threats such as the Coronavirus. AI can improve the efficiency and success rate of drug development. It can also accelerate the process in response to deadly disease threats. 

A report by PwC states that the healthcare and pharma sectors are experiencing 67% improvement in clinical trials and drug discovery with the help of AI. 

Listed below are a few examples of how AI handholds frontline workers in the battle against Coronavirus pandemic:

• AI-enabled contactless and wireless thermal scanning devices designed to collect and store precise temperature data of individuals. Care providers can integrate this data into healthcare platforms for further analysis. 
• AI-based computer vision programs that can be integrated into drones and CCTV cameras installed in public places to monitor the adherence of the public to COVID safety protocols. It can send real-time alerts to police and public health departments in case of safety violations.
• AI-based robots that help physicians and healthcare workers with patient screening to avoid the risk of virus exposure. It can also enable video conversations with medical experts to procure prescriptions.
• Customized AI applications that help predict COVID-19 symptoms through sample screening. AI also helps in predicting COVID risk scores.  

2. Primary care

Multiple organizations are working on ‘direct to patient solutions’ offering advice through voice or chat-based interaction. This can enable patients to receive quick, scalable access for their medical issues minimizing unnecessary trips to the healthcare facility. Healthcare providers should use AI-based direct-to-patient solutions to provide essential guidance for patients in remote geographies of the world. 

Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing the medical industry

Artificial intelligence in medicine is changing the role of doctors and medical professionals. It is also helping patients improve personal health management. AI is here to grow and transform numerous aspects like diagnosis, decision-making, treatment plan, drug development, etc. AI can play a leading role in how the future medical industry operates, ensuring optimal patient outcomes. 

Fingent keeps a close eye on the happenings in the medical industry and has developed the necessary capabilities to enable a connected healthcare ecosystem for our clients by developing advanced, end-to-end digital solutions. 

Give us a call, and let’s discuss your digital needs.

How e-commerce adoption benefits B2B healthcare providers and device makers 

The healthcare and life sciences industry is expanding at an exponential rate. The complexity and regulatory nature of the industry have made it imperative that technology catches up with its pace and offers solutions to meet this expansion. This need is being felt more acutely at the moment with the COVID-19 pandemic on the loose. As the pandemic spreads its poison and puts the B2B healthcare and life sciences e-commerce market into a state of flux, it forces large and small organizations to cope with a range of problems that include difficult purchase decisions, supply chain disruptions, and fulfillment and delivery issues. This calls for a technological solution tailored to suit the B2B healthcare and life sciences industry. 

With over 17 years of experience in delivering customized technological solutions including developing e-commerce platforms for B2B clients, we provide B2B e-commerce web application development services for manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and so on. Also, our mobile app development services specialize in the designing and development of custom B2B e-commerce apps. 

Case Study: Fingent’s solution for our client Bonanza – Streamlining Online Listing and Inventory Management

In this article, we will explore five specific ways in which B2B e-commerce is that solution and how it will transform healthcare and life sciences.

Immediate and lasting impact on the B2B e-commerce market

In the present scenario, especially from a healthcare and life sciences manufacturing and supply perspective, the impact is immediate throughout the entire supply chain. Manufacturing companies are unable to keep up with the demand, and distributors are rushing to create workflows in an attempt to mitigate customer complaints. Distributors are being forced to claw their way to the front of the line to obtain supplies from manufacturers, stock up on products, and take care of their customers.  

Healthcare and life sciences organizations typically have disaster preparedness plans, but dealing with such an unprecedented disaster is another ball game altogether. The question has shifted from purchasing to inventory, from buying to stocking.  It makes it challenging to find the space to hold extra products that these industries may need and that causes anxiety to all parties within the supply chain. 

B2B e-commerce offers irresistible opportunities for purchasers and medical suppliers

B2B e-commerce works largely on a distribution-based model where customers get their supplies from local distributors or dealers. Thus far, e-commerce has been disrupting the offline system of the B2B industry at a slow pace. However, with the spread of coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown, various industries including healthcare and life sciences are switching to online buying options to prevent human contact. This has resulted in B2B e-commerce experiencing an unprecedented boost in traffic and sales in just a matter of a few weeks. 

Read More: Contactless Retail Delivery Software –  How Retailers Can Revive Sales While Adhering To Social Distancing Norms

While buyers turn to an online purchase, many suppliers have adapted their strategy to foster online sales, dedicating a certain amount of their budget to digital marketing and communications. The current pandemic is imposing digitization of all B2B businesses that would help to communicate with the buyers and generate sales. Digitization of the supply chain is a crucial aspect of e-commerce because it encourages transparency and shows real-time availability of goods right from the manufacturers to the buyers. This makes it extremely important for suppliers to implement digitization in their supply chain. 

The present COVID situation has forced most suppliers to work from home. Those who have already been using digital media are able to manage work remotely. However, others need to think over and plan to reform their business model to adapt to the new era of e-commerce. The pandemic might be temporary, but this trend is not going to be! This is a breakthrough that will continue far into the future. Now is the best time to be innovative, leverage the benefits of the latest digital technology, data analytics, and AI and unlock the potential of digitalization and e-commerce in B2B business. An advanced e-commerce solution built on the latest technology facilitates seamless interactions online across marketing, product discovery, sales, and post-sale service in the B2B sellers’ space. 

Read More: E-commerce ERP Software

Five ways B2B e-commerce can be transformative

As B2B e-commerce forges ahead, the healthcare and life sciences industries will prove to be faster adopters than others. They can fully leverage real-time data tracking inventory and logistics between buyers and sellers. For manufacturers and distributors who sell to hospitals and nursing homes, the level of information presented to buyers in the B2B space can depend on the size of the organization or the customer that is doing the transaction. Depending on the frequency of the order, the level of sophistication of information may vary.  Shifting to B2B e-commerce will prove to be a much-needed transformation. 

Here are five ways that this transformation will be seen: 

1. Online Shopping Drives Online Presence

E-commerce is changing the way people and end-users (such as doctors) shop for healthcare products and the way those products reach the hands of customers. Instead of visiting a pharmacy, most customers are turning to the internet to perform the functions of a regular pharmacy. Healthcare and life sciences companies use a business model that features quick delivery to a patient’s door or to hospitals and healthcare centers. Investors see promise in this revolutionary approach to medication fulfillment, demonstrating that the market has confidence in this model despite the shifting healthcare and life sciences landscape. 

With more and more people turning to the internet to access products and medical care, the healthcare and life sciences industries have been increasingly concerned with the quality of their online presence. According to an online medical marketplace, 50% of their customers are referred by their primary provider or by hospital staff, and 20% are referred by family or friends. This highlights the need for the healthcare and life sciences industries to increase their online presence and maintain it. 

2. Helps explore new possibilities while cutting costs and time 

Shifting to an online B2B e-commerce process can help businesses recover 25-30 percent of their investment. Some of the more mature players might even see higher returns of their business through online orders. 

Migrating more orders online frees up time for sales reps. They can concentrate on introducing new products and capitalize on opportunities for new business. This allows industry leaders to use their time and ability to explore new channels of business and revenue streams. This can also help expand their client base and move into new markets. 

B2B e-commerce enables the healthcare and life sciences companies to see where the business is coming from, where the segments are online and where they are offline. It also gives them the ability to offer variable discounts with certain customers, on certain products, or even just one customer. It will make drug prices more transparent and market-oriented. 

Read more: Odoo E-commerce – 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP

3. Transforms Logistics Operations

Synchronization of logistic operations is critical for the success of any business. Enterprise customers generally look for reliability, speed, traceability, and convenience in delivery along with effective product returns, and exchange policy of damaged products. 

Technology solutions for B2B e-commerce provide orchestration with an application that is to be hosted on an e-commerce website. The open standard in these applications facilitates information exchange that allows real-time visibility for seamless integration across supply chain stakeholders. E-commerce offerings can provide credibility and trust for transactions between companies involved in the supply chain. 

4. Enables Customer Personalization

B2B e-commerce enables customer personalization. Enterprise customers want personalized solutions. B2B e-commerce provides a customer portal with content organized around the parameters of their past purchase history and price optimization algorithms that are adjusted on the basis of the relationship. E-commerce offerings are simple, flexible, and convenient. B2B players can use a comprehensive suite of tools that are available to help their customers navigate the site. Certain platforms incorporate live online support to assist with any queries or issues which can improve conversion levels and facilitate buying decisions.

5. Sheer Momentum 

Many medical device companies are already selling products online to enterprise customers. The healthcare and life sciences market is ripe for disruption. Medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies will continue to deliver to wholesalers and distributors, but e-commerce allows them to embark on direct-to-patient delivery. Logistics is ready to respond with tailored services for various products. B2B e-commerce is set to propel healthcare and life sciences forward in the extremely near future.

Take Action

Ultimately, healthcare and life sciences e-commerce will facilitate the redistribution of stakeholders’ offline enterprise transformation and reconstruct all the links of the value chain. Realizing the benefits of B2B e-commerce, many healthcare and life sciences companies are becoming believers. 

Read more: Top 5 Open-source ERP Systems for Medical Equipment Suppliers

E-commerce can effectively optimize operating processes, reduce costs, manage resource allocations, and address the increasingly diversified consumer healthcare demands. The healthcare and life sciences companies must understand that due to the conditions of accelerated technology change, it has become critical for enterprises to become more skilled in deciding their future course and be firm in taking action. If you need help with this, we at Fingent are here to help you take that next step. Get in touch with us and just let us know what you need. 

How Face Recognition Apps Are Defining The Future Of Competitive Industries?

There has been a lot of talk about Face Recognition Apps recently. It has received accolades for its use in enhancing security as well as flak over privacy concerns. Speculations aside, there is no denying that face recognition software has revolutionized the way we perceive technology. It is no longer a faraway concept as it finds a place in our pockets through mobile technology.

In this blog, we will look at the technology behind face recognition software, what makes it tick and how it has found application across industries.

What Is A Face Recognition App?

Face recognition is a biometric technology that creates a face print of an individual by mapping out his or her facial features mathematically. This face print is stored and used to compare a digital image of a person verifying their identity.

This mapping is done by identifying 80 nodal points on a human face. These nodal points are used to measure different variables of the face. The width of the forehead, the length of the nose, the shape of the eyes – these measurements are captured on a digital image of the person’s face and stored as a face print. Deep learning algorithms are then used to identify a person in comparison with the face print.

This technology has been used in various ways from automatic photo tagging by apps like Facebook for authentication and identification by Apple’s iPhone X. The way in which Apple has used this technology is interesting. Face ID technology, which allows users to unlock their phones using the stored face print, is designed with 3-D modeling. The software compares over 30,000 variables to fine-tune recognition capabilities. This face print or Face ID can be used as authentication for purchases done with Apple Pay and other Apple stores. Amazon Rekognition, Google Cloud Vision API and other image analysis APIs can be now used to add facial recognition capabilities to other applications.  

The inclusion of technologies like augmented reality, mixed reality and more have made face recognition software a powerful force. At Fingent, we developed a mixed reality application using Microsoft Hololens. This application helps in the identification of a person and also links the face print to the biodata of the person. It will also be able to capture images and compute similarities between the captured image and all the other images in a secure database.

Read More: The future of communication and security using augmented reality.

The Role of Face Recognition Apps in Safety and Protection

According to a Javelin Strategy and Research study, identity fraud hit a record high with 15.4 million U.S. Victims in 2016 and an increase of 16 percent from previous years. In a connected world where such vulnerabilities exist, face recognition software is proving to be an invaluable asset. The software is helping law enforcement and corporate to put a name to the faces of criminals who have been playing havoc with stolen identities. Some applications of face recognition software in ensuring safety are:

• Identity validation at ATMs and prevention of identity theft with photo IDs.
• Face recognition surveillance systems in schools to protect students from expelled students or parents who have been flagged as dangerous.
• Equipping law enforcement personnel with identification of criminals and contextual data to warn them of dangerous persons before they approach offenders.
• Automated facial recognition (known as AFR) helps in forensic investigations by identifying individuals on surveillance cameras and videos, as well as in recognition of dead/unconscious individuals at crime scenes.
• Protecting retailers from shoplifters by warning security personnel of known criminals with a record. It also helps them avoid potential violence in the store by warning them when dangerous criminals or disgruntled former employees enter.

How Various Industries Can Benefit from Face Recognition Apps

Apart from ensuring safety and prevention of identity theft, face recognition software has many commercial applications as well. Many organizations across industries are recognizing the vast potential of face recognition apps and exploring different ways to capitalize on its features. Let us look at the Healthcare and Retail industries as an example.

Healthcare

Healthcare is constantly making giant strides with technology and facial recognition is contributing in unexpected ways. Researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in the United States have come up with a face recognition system, which can diagnose a rare genetic disease called DiGeorge syndrome. People with this syndrome exhibit particular facial anomalies, which give them characteristic expressions that can be detected by facial recognition software. Despite the many challenges associated with effective detection, the team has developed software with an accuracy of 96.6%.  

Another example of face detection software being used in healthcare is the facial recognition app developed by Listerine. This app enables a blind person to detect when somebody is smiling at them, by setting off vibrations when the face recognition app detects a smile. This helps the blind respond better in social situations, thus contributing to their quality of life.

Speaking about the further possibilities that technology can bring to healthcare, Christoffer Nellaker, of the Medical Research Foundation’s Functional Genomics Unit at Oxford says: “A doctor should in the future, anywhere in the world, be able to take a smartphone picture of a patient and run the computer analysis to quickly find out which genetic disorder the person might have”. This is already coming true with the help of face recognition.

Related Reading: Check out how modern healthcare is revolutionizing with automation.

Retail

Retailers have been using augmented reality to improve the customer experience for a while now. The retail giant Sephora has gone one step further and added a live 3D facial recognition feature to its Virtual Artist application. This enables a more accurate facial tracking and rendering, allowing users to virtually try on Sephora’s various products while they are moving in real time. Parham Aarabi, CEO of ModiFace, which is the developer of this function for Sephora says: “We believe the ability to see yourself with products can impact sales online … and thus the integration on Sephora will, based on our expectation, result in increased conversions and user engagement.” The goal with this move is to enable customers to try on their products in a fun and more interactive way. The accuracy enabled by this technology will go a long way in enhancing the customer’s experience and boosting sales.

By using face recognition software in making educated guesses about a potential customer’s gender, age, etc., big retail giants are optimizing their ad campaigns to specific target audiences. Such advertisements are more effective as they help deliver a targeted message that has a powerful effect on consumers. An example is the “Because I’m a Girl” campaign rolled out by children’s charity Plan the UK. The charity created bus billboards, which would scan the viewer’s face and display an ad depending on the viewer’s gender. This was done to highlight the plight of women who are denied rights based on their sex. Brands like Virgin Mobile, Nike and others have also used face recognition software to create a more immersive ad experience for their customers.

Related Reading: Find top ways to leverage smart IT solutions for your retail business. 

Implementing Face Recognition Technology

Face recognition software is closer to home than we think, and it is apt to look at ways in which your company can capitalize on its capabilities. Talk to us and let’s discuss how.

The Healthcare sector is booming at a faster rate and the necessity to manage patient care and innovate medicines has increased synonymously. With the rise in such needs, newer technologies are being adopted in the industry. One such major change that might take place in the future is the use of Big Data and Analytics in the Healthcare sector.

According to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report sponsored by Seagate Technology, it is found that big data is projected to grow faster in healthcare than in sectors like manufacturing, financial services or media. It is estimated that the healthcare data will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36 percent through 2025.

Market research have shown that the global big data in the healthcare market is expected to reach $34.27 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 22.07%. Globally, the big data analytics segment are expected to be worth more than $68.03 billion by 2024, driven largely by continued North American investments in electronic health records, practice management tools, and workforce management solutions.

Here are 5 ways in which Big Data can help and change the entire scenario of the Healthcare sector.

1. Health Tracking

Big Data and Analytics along with the Internet of Things (IoT), is revolutionizing the way one can track various user statistics and vitals. Apart from the basic wearables that can detect the patient’s sleep, heart rate, exercise, distance walked, etc. there are new medical innovations that can monitor the patient’s blood pressure, pulse Oximeters, glucose monitors, and more. The continuous monitoring of the body vitals along with the sensor data collection will allow healthcare organizations to keep people out of the hospital since they can identify potential health issue and provide care before the situation goes worse.

2. Reducing Cost

Big Data can be a great way to save costs for hospitals that either over or under book staff members. Predictive analysis can help resolve this issue by predicting the admission rates and help with staff allocation. This will reduce the Rate of Investment incurred by hospitals and in fact help utilize their investment to the max. The insurance industry can save money by backing wearables and health trackers to ensure that patients do not spend time in the hospital. It can save wait times for patients since the hospital will have adequate staff and beds available as per the analysis all the time. Predictive analytics also helps cut costs by reducing the rate of hospital readmissions.

According to a recent report by the Society of Actuaries, 47% of healthcare organizations are already using predictive analytics. It is also noted that over 57% of healthcare sectors believe that predictive analytics will save organizations 25 percent or more in annual costs over the next five years.

Healthcare & Big Data Facts: McKinsey & Company report states that after 20 years of steady increases, healthcare expenses now represent 17.6% of GDP, ie. nearly $600 billion more than the expected benchmark for the U.S. size and wealth.

3. Assisting High-Risk Patients

If all the hospital records are digitized, it will be the perfect data that can be accessed to understand the pattern of many patients. It can identify the patients approaching the hospital repeatedly and identify their chronic issues. Such understanding will help in giving such patients better care and provide an insight into corrective measures to reduce their frequent visits. It is a great way to keep a list and check on high-risk patients and offer them customized care.

4. Preventing Human Errors

A lot many times it has been noted that the professionals tend to either prescribe a wrong medicine or dispatch a different medication by mistake. Such errors, in general, can be reduced since Big Data can be leveraged to analyze user data and the prescribed medication. It can corroborate the data and flag potential out of place prescription to reduce mistakes and save lives. Such software can be a great tool for physicians who cater to many patients in a day.

Healthcare & Big Data Facts: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services prevented more than $210.7 million in healthcare fraud in one year using predictive analytics.

5. Advancement in Healthcare Sector

Apart from the current scenario, Big Data can be a great benefit for advancement in science and technology. For Healthcare, Artificial Intelligence, such as IBM’s Watson can be used to surf through numerous data within seconds to find solutions for various diseases. Such advancement is already in progress and will continue to grow with the amount of research collected by Big Data. It will not only be able to provide accurate solutions, but also offer customized solutions for unique problems. The availability of predictive analysis will assist patients traveling to a particular geographical location by studying similar patients in that area.

Healthcare & Big Data Facts: Effective use of big data could add $300 million per year to the healthcare industry.

Thus, to sum up, Big Data increases the ability of the healthcare sectors to:

• Predict Epidemics
• Cure Disease
• Improve Quality of Life
• Increase Preventable Care
• Begin Early Preventive Care
• Spot Warning Signs Sooner

Numerous studies and researches prove that technology has tremendously transformed the healthcare sectors. Professor and researcher Ronda Hughes too explains in her research how big data is improving health services.

Improving health outcomes with big data | Source : TEDxUofSC

Although most part of Big Data generated is not fully utilized currently due to limitations of the toolset and funds, it is definitely the future. Invest in the future and use Big Data Analytics to be a part of an evolving Healthcare Industry by seeking an experienced company such as ours to assist you.

Related Reading: Find out how big companies are using the power of Big Data to enhance customer experience. 

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They say the only thing that is constant in this world is change. It applies to every single aspect of our lives, including the health and well being. Thinking from an industrial perspective, the healthcare landscape is constantly evolving from one level to the next and it only increases the need for IT systems to be more scalable, flexible, adaptable and secure. But technology too is an ever changing concept, needing regular and constant updates to remain fresh and competitive, not to mention the ever-changing regulatory requirements as well. So as you can see, it is a continuously changing scenario, which makes it all the more important for organizations to make sure they have the most leading edge software to keep pace with the environment.
Organizations need to build technologies that have the ability to adapt and change, while sticking to compliance regulations. As mentioned before, their focus should be on flexibility and scalability of their IT platforms. In other words, they need to develop future ready IT systems that are safe and secure.
Dr. Andrew Litt, Chief Medical Officer at Dell Healthcare and Life Sciences says, “ The only way hospitals will thrive is if there’s useful, timely and relevant information that is securely delivered along the care continuum.”

Thankfully, the IT field is making its improved contributions as well for the healthcare sector and now it is up to the organizations to narrow down and adopt the most appropriate one. To help them in this regard and to enable them to get the most out of their systems, here are 5 pointers to look for while choosing a future ready healthcare platform:

1. Scalability and adaptability – This is one of the most important factors to consider to make your systems future-proof. The market for healthcare applications is one which is very volatile, with regulation coming in quite frequently and with little notice. In such a scenario, it is important to have systems that are flexible and can adapt to changes easily. For example, when the new office takes charge with the 2016 presidential elections in the U.S, there may be new regulations to comply with, or when an organization launches a new product or a new healthcare plan, there might be a need for the existing healthcare applications to scale out or adapt to new norms. To support all these kinds of dynamics, organizations need to look for open architecture systems that enable quick and easy integration of new additions in business as well as simplified processes of upgrades.
2. Ease of adoption – For all the reasons that the business environment is dynamic, it also means an existing healthcare application system has to be adaptable. At the same time, it might also need additional integrations or deployment of specific components. Organizations need solutions that can make way for these and enable such additions in a streamlined and seamless manner. In situations where an existing system is being replaced by an organization, the new solution has to be smoothly deployed, without wasting time on installation, training and the like. For this purpose, cloud integrated solutions may be leveraged as they support fast and easy enforcement with no need for onsite installation and are also highly scalable.
3. Automation – As organizations are striving to keep up with the growing demand for improved quality of care, they also need to keep a check on the costs. As a matter of fact, they are faced with the challenge of reducing the costs without compromising on the quality of care. For this purpose, healthcare applications must support full-fledged automation of most if not all important functions, so as to eliminate manual processes that take up a lot of time and effort. It can also make sure that there are no compliance issues. Organizations can do completely away with the error-prone, time-intensive and inefficient manual data entry processes. Moreover, with the automation of the financial systems as well, processes like billing, collection of cash and the like can also be simplified.
4. Interactivity – Most healthcare, as well as banking organizations, are starting to embrace retail-centric models of technology to manage their affairs. This means that users of the system, that is, the consumers in case of retail solutions and patients in case of healthcare solutions, can interact with the system empowering them to take care of their own issues. This is quite a huge deal for healthcare, as member portals like these give patients the freedom and accessibility to view their own health records, or health plan benefits and the like. It also lets them perform self-service transactions and open enrollment activities on their own online. It also lets them interact with doctors and providers regarding personal healthcare. Organizations need to look for solutions that have the capability to connect with such member portals and make their users self-sufficient.
5. Real-time information – This is an extension of the previous point on member portals. People nowadays need speed and transparency more than anything, and it is only going to become even more so in future. Patients need real-time information at their fingertips about their appointments like billing, coverage, and details of the doctor through a secure online portal. Hence, at any cost, a healthcare application needs to be in the direction of real-time. The most appropriate way to ensure this is by tightening the connectivity between the administrative system of an organization and its member portals. Such kind of connectivity again calls for an open architecture of all platforms involved. Such integration also gives patients an overview of their billing, payment and other details in real time.

All of these point towards an age where people can proactively manage their healthcare by themselves as well by their providers. As an organization gears up for this phenomenon, it might be useful to keep the above points in mind and make their healthcare platforms future proof, so as to gain maximum efficiency.