Abstract
Healthcare is one of the significant areas of development where the hospitals are turning to innovative models built around advanced medical technologies like electronic health, tele-medicine, and mobile health. Healthcare sector is revolving around big data sets and huge amount of unstructured information produced from these high-tech devices and tools. But the technologies like machine language, big data, and artificial intelligence are turning them to a data-intensive science. The data is used for analysis by medical researchers which in turn is becoming solution for many healthcare challenges like early diagnosis, quality care, portable healthcare, cost- and time-effective treatments, and many more. Therefore, the hospitals are turning to smart hospitals to strengthen their existence in tomorrow's challenging medical service market. This chapter discusses the technology contribution in healthcare, challenges in future, future healthcare and cost model, and challenges for insurance companies.
TopThere are various transformations factors in Health care sector which are changing the shape of the whole industry and re-shaping per the demands and needs of the patients and customers. As per the market trends and Transparent Market Research, the forecast is that telehealth global market will reach US$19.5 billion by 2025 (Market Research 2018). That is an estimated CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 13% from US$6 billion in 2016 (Market Research 2018).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Mobile Health Applications (M-Health): It refers to the use of mobiles phones or tablets in medical care.
Medicare: It is a program run by US federal government which provided health care insurance to Americans who are 65 years of age or older.
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act): It is an US Law defined for privacy standards to protect patient’s medical data and other health information to doctors, hospitals, or healthcare providers.
Artificial Intelligence: It is an ability of a machine or computer or program to think and learn and thus making machines smart.
Physicians: It is referred to a qualified doctor of medicine.
Health Information Exchanges: It allows the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and patients to securely share and access the patient’s data across organizations or hospitals in a region.
Electronic Health Records (EHR): It is an electronic r digital version of the patient’s medical data including the diagnosis, medications, medical history, immunizations, and lab results.
3D Printing: It is a process of making three dimensional objects from a digital model by laying down many thin layers.
Machine Learning: It is an application of artificial intelligence which makes the computer programs learn by themselves using the existing data and experiences.
Medicaid: It is United States’ healthcare insurance program for low-income individuals and those with disabilities.
Block Chain: It is distributed database of the transactions in bitcoin or cryptocurrency and maintained in multiple computers which are linked in a network.
Tele-Medicine: It allows healthcare professionals to exchange medical information to diagnose and treat the patients in remote locations.