The integration of digital transformation in healthcare can open new avenues for growth and opportunities for stakeholders across the value chain of the industry.
Digital Transformations are becoming instrumental in creating, communicating, and delivering superior value to stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem. Global market for digital health was valued at $180.2 bn in 2023 and expected to grow with 25% CAGR to reach $549.7 bn by 2028.
From healthcare providers to pharma companies and policymakers, digitalization is gaining grounds at an unprecedented rate which were never seen before by the industry. Here’s a close look at significant digital trends that are helping the healthcare industry to boost its prospects across the value chain.
Even more heartening is the holistic change that this wave of digitalisation is helping to bring about in the healthcare sector. From patients, care providers, and pharma companies to source suppliers, logistic partners, and insurance firms, each one is benefitting from superior value being generated by digital tools and technologies.
Digital Solutions: Leading Healthcare Names
There are many new-age digital innovations that have made their way into the healthcare sector. In fact, many companies are breaking ground by launching digital-first solutions in the categories of critical healthcare and wellbeing. Apollo Pharmacy, for instance, launched the integrated sugar management plan under the aegis of Apollo Sugar Clinics.
The technology-based initiative offers a complete range of diabetic care programs including access to personalized treatments, round-the-clock monitoring, and real-time updates on sugar levels. Sugar.fit, another diabetes care program, makes use of integrated devices and trackers that continuously monitor the glucose levels and offer real-time updates and recommendations to patients.
The platform also allows users to interact with diabetes specialists and health coaches to manage their sugar levels under the optimum control all the time.
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories has also fully embraced digitalization as it offers an integrated plan for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). The 14-week, app-based condition management program is named DailyBloom IBS and offers customized solutions to manage IBS. Good Bug is another wonderful example of how digital technology can help companies deliver customized solutions to their target consumers.
The gut-specialist brand offers US FDA-approved products and offers consumers holistic solutions to improve their gut health and well-being. Similar to these firms, many more names including Cosmix, Woolah Bagless Tea, HealthifyMe, and Innovaccer are showing how embracing digitalization can help in acing the game while delivering superior benefits to stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem.
AI, ML, and Blockchain: How are these proving a Game changer?
The integration of AI, ML, and Blockchain are proving a gamechanger for the healthcare sector. From running diagnostics to aiding discoveries and delivering personalizing treatments, AI and ML are elevating the efficacy of the healthcare sector to a whole new level. The combination is also making healthcare affordable by automating processes, streamlining tasks, and catalyzing innovations.
The growing role of blockchain is also assuming strategic significance among the players in the healthcare ecosystem. The open ledger is being used for the securing clinical records, patients’ data, and preserving privacy of sensitive information. The technology is also used for creating a centralized patients database which can be referred by physicians, hospitals, pharmacists, and other stakeholders in a completely safe and secure manner.
In addition, blockchain has immense potential in the medical supply chain and by using the technology, the healthcare sector can keep medicines safe from any potential prospects of adulteration, mixing, and drug trafficking.
Healthcare Digitization: Critical Requirements
To successfully integrate digitalization into the healthcare sector, a holistic and all-encompassing approach is required. To start with, stakeholders need to focus on digitizing processes which are critical for delivering superior value to patients. Going further, the digital embracement should be around service-delivery mechanisms which are crucial for outcomes related to patient care treatments and procedures.
In the next and final step, digitalization must become a part of end-to-end activities to create, communicate, and deliver enhanced benefits across the ecosystem. In addition to these strategic requirements, the need to upgrade existing IT infrastructure in the healthcare industry and aligning legacy systems with modern technologies is also an important prerequisite for achieving desired outcomes on digital transformation of the healthcare industry.
Conclusion
Digitalization is a boon for healthcare and by focusing upon its multifaceted capabilities, the sector can derive immense benefits from the integration of digital tools and technologies. The new-age technologies such as AI and ML can play an important role in streamlining workflows and reducing human intervention while aiding diagnostic, analyses, and therapeutic procedures in the healthcare ecosystem.
These tools can also help in forecasting demand, sourcing supplies, optimizing logistics, and managing inventory across the healthcare ecosystem. Further, the use of blockchain can take the safety, security, and privacy of digital records to the next level by offering centralized access to completely immutable records. In sum, AI holds immense potential and by helping stakeholders deliver fast, reliable, and cost-effective services to patients, the technology will completely transform the sector in coming years.
