This is especially true in the medical research field, as without accurate and comprehensive data, researchers cannot promote the necessary advancements in medical treatments required in the modern world. Such gathered data can then be translated into understandable units that researchers, developers, medical engineers, practitioners, and many other stakeholders can use to feed into their practical medical developments and patient treatment solutions.

Intermountain has earned a Press Ganey Top Box Score of more than 80% for its scheduled video visit service, with patients requesting more digital engagement as they learn about the option. "In 2020, we converted the internal acute care services to the Amwell Hospital platform," said Brian Wayling, telehealth services associate vice president at Intermountain Healthcare. "Fundamentally, the wide dispersion of telehealth has helped Intermountain build upon our core tenets of care delivery - increased access, reduced costs, consistent patient care and improved caregiver engagement - regardless of patient location," Wayling stated. "With more than 500 clinicians accessing the platform on a regular basis to provide care to almost 70 hospitals in nine states, Intermountain has helped tens of thousands of patients receive care closer to home, assisted local care teams in learning new skills while caring for higher acuity patients, and expanded care standards to ensure appropriate, cost-effective care is provided," he continued.

In addition to these core types of services, Intermountain has enabled all clinical services with an EHR-embedded telehealth platform for outpatient care. "Over the years, telehealth services have also worked extensively with Intermountain Technology Services - most notably with cybersecurity and networking – to ensure our patient data is secure and protected. As of the second quarter of 2022, Intermountain has earned a Press Ganey Top Box Score of more than 80% for its scheduled video visit service, with patients requesting more digital engagement as they learn about the option. Intermountain was awarded $730,008 from the FCC telehealth grant program for smartphones, tablets, video conferencing equipment, and various monitoring and telehealth platforms and applications with which providers can remotely assess COVID-19 patients, conduct remote monitoring for high-risk patients by using specially configured technology kits, offer patients access to medical care and opinions from providers anywhere, and educate people and answer questions about COVID-19.

This Femtech market report enables key players to change, stay successful and be innovative with the times. This Femtech market report assists a number of investors, shareholders as well as enterprises in understanding the tough areas of marketing ideas, technical development, key issues, and systematic analysis in order to accomplish long-term competitive gain in the industry. Report Overview: It includes major players of the Femtech market covered in the research study, research scope, market segments by type, market segments by application, years considered for the research study, and objectives of the report. It also provides growth rates of key producers operating in the Femtech market. The analysts have provided information about their recent developments in the Femtech market, products, revenue, production, business, and company. Market Forecast by Production: The production and production value forecasts included in this section are for the Femtech market as well as for key regional markets. Market Forecast by Consumption: The consumption and consumption value forecasts included in this section are for the Femtech market as well as for key regional markets. Verified Market Research® is a leading Global Research and Consulting firm that has been providing advanced analytical research solutions, custom consulting and in-depth data analysis for 10+ years to individuals and companies alike that are looking for accurate, reliable and up to date research data and technical consulting.

63% of people of color intend to use digital apps and telehealth more going forward but 36%-54% of healthcare providers say that their patients from low-income households do not have the means to access telehealth easily. While there is potential for digital health to be the vehicle in which we can move toward a more equitable healthcare system, addressing gaps in care to achieve greater equality will require multifaceted solutions and collaboration to create and implement meaningful and sustainable change. Literacy: While patients may have access to more of their health information because of digital platforms such as telehealth and online portals, digital literacy is a prevalent barrier that blocks many patients from these services. There needs to be a thoughtful approach to user experience, site design, and navigation systems to ensure these platforms are accessible to patients with low digital literacy. A standardized approach to reimbursement and coverage for digital health is an important start to ensuring wider access to crucial digitally enabled technologies and remote healthcare related services. Healthcare design expert Kim Erwin and population health expert Jerry Krishnan have noted that “the key is to shift our focus from helping people to fit our care delivery system, to one where we design our care delivery system to fit people where they live, work, learn, play, and receive healthcare.” Technological advances make it possible for us to rethink and redesign healthcare systems in ways that both deliver care more effectively and promote greater health equity for patients. We believe that the future of healthcare is headed in the right direction and as long as we harness the power of digital health technologies we can shift toward a more equitable healthcare system where patients everywhere can access high-quality care that results in better health and improved outcomes.

Telemedicine is a supplement to a patient's total care, not a replacement for in-person doctor visits. Family doctors can easily access specialists using telemedicine, which enables them to monitor their patients closely. Numerous telemedicine systems, including store and forward, real-time and remote, or self-monitoring, are used worldwide for education, healthcare delivery and control, sickness screening, and disaster management. Telemedicine provides timely patient care and reduces the risk of exposure to various communicable diseases offered to medical practitioners. This study provides brief information on telemedicine, its application and scope in dermatology, and how it can alter the healthcare system. In scientific words, telemedicine is "the usage of medicinal knowledge borrowed from one place to another via computerized transmission for improving the clinical health status of a patient." Telemedicine and telepath, as generally utilized today, can be considered interchangeable. In such cases, telemedicine substantially contributes to providing quality and affordable healthcare to India's poorest citizens and is anticipated to close the health disparity between rural and urban areas. Most doctors believe enhancing the quality of care is their foremost reason for enforcing telemedicine, as it helps them deliver timely patient care.

Benefits seen in case of patients are frequent communications with their physician, open access to specialists, saved time and expenditure on travel (especially for rural patients), contact with the medical practitioners at their convenience, reduced wait hours, convenient, on-demand care, motivate them to be actively engaged with treatment decisions. Statistics involving patients' perspectives toward telemedicine prove that 76% prioritize gaining access to healthcare over their need for face-to-face interaction with physicians. More than two-thirds of patients say telemedicine gave them a sense of fulfillment with medical care. Dermatology residents and fellows Despite their general preference for the latter, residents were equally adept at accurately diagnosing dermatopathology patients when assessed using virtual and glass slide microscopy. Residents and medical students can learn about dermatology using teledermatology as a teaching method. Survey Assessment of teledermatology's effectiveness in teaching the six essential clinical competencies and how dermatology residents and medical students perceive it.

In patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning, improvement, and systems-based practice, teledermatology is appreciated as a teaching tool for dermatology.Prospective study Analyze the diagnostic and treatment agreement between the resident and attending dermatologists responding to primary care providers' stored and forwarded teledermatology consults. Dermatology residency programs Out of the 72 respondents, 34 (47%) programs used telemedicine as a component of their residency training, with store and forward technology being the most popular (85%) and live interactive (35%) or a combination of the two techniques being used. The survey results reveal a training gap for dermatology residents in telemedicine. Store and forward teledermatology and real-time interactive teledermatology result in average reductions of 45.5 percent to 61.5 percent in in-person dermatological consultations. Clinical outcomes for patients who receive teledermatology care or are managed by it are on par with traditional medicine. In practically every area of dermatology, including research, clinical practice, dermatology education and training, and the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases as well as patient follow-up, digital dermatology has found application. Teledermatology provides specialized medical care with reduced diagnostic precision and a more significant proportion of incorrect diagnoses.

The doctor must have direct knowledge of the patient's clinical history or have access to it during medical care to safeguard the patient's privacy and intimacy and the doctor-patient relationship. Additionally, concerning teledermatology, medical practitioners must take extra care to ensure that the images are encrypted or coded when they are updated or added to the clinical history to avoid access by unauthorized individuals. To promote the use of telemedicine, "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) comprises four divisions, including the establishment of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services." Focusing on these aspects will ultimately facilitate the usage and elaboration of telemedicine. The ACA includes several services to support telemedicine and gives the new CMMI the ability to research and develop innovative care models that adopt technology, such as electronic monitoring, in various care settings. The project looks at the provision of telemedicine services in managing behavioral health disorders and stroke, in addition to initiatives to increase the ability of doctors and other non-medical individuals to deliver health care for people with long-term and complex medical diseases.

Additionally, the law needs accountable care organizations (ACOs) to develop strategies to advocate evidence-based medicine, patient involvement, records standards, and cost estimates and coordinate care using telemedicine, distant patient monitoring, and other supporting technologies. For the sake of increase in the availability of telemedicine services in India, "ISRO collaborated with the Department of Information Technology (DIT), the Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the state governments." "The Ministry of Health under the Government of India has included initiatives like the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP), National Cancer Network (ONET), National Rural Telemedicine Network, National Medical College Network, and the Digital Medical Library Network" to consolidate the public health data that is currently available and provide easy entry. Two other praiseworthy initiatives included the organization of a "National Telemedicine Task Force by the Health Ministry in 2005 and the creation of standardized telemedicine practice guidelines by the Department of Information Technology in the Government of India". Some effectively appointed telehealth services in India include mammography services at "Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi; oncology at the Regional Cancer Center, Trivandrum; surgical services at Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, School of Telemedicine and Biomedical Informatics".

The "National Rural Telemedicine Network for e-Healthcare delivery and the National Medical College Network (NMCN)" for interconnecting medical colleges across the nation have been established by the telemedicine division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India. The aim and vision of incorporating telemedicine and virtual care in the healthcare system were to deliver optimum healthcare, which facilitated addressing long waiting hours and the threat of disease progression in social distancing, aid hospitals, and clinics. Reduction in real-time visits to the medical centers and minimizing one-on-one interchange between physicians and their patients, virtual treatment, and monitoring solutions decrease the transmission of potent microbiological agents and shield medical practitioners from diseases. Telemedicine and online applications or websites empower the medical fraternity by providing aid in managing extensive outbreaks and emergencies in highly unpredictable times. Telehealth is extensively available, affordable, and accepted by medical practitioners; with COVID-19 spreading and various cities undergoing lockdown due to the high infectivity of the coronavirus, the use of telemedicine by medical practitioners as a tool of diagnosis and treatment was considered an obligation.

Babylon, a digital health company that facilitates virtual visits, intends to let go of about 100 employees as it cuts costs by about $100 million, Bloomberg reported recently.

The Metaverse in Medicine can be defined as the medical Internet of Things facilitated using AR and VR glasses. Metaverse is evolving; it holds new potential in healthcare that combines technologies like AI, VR, AR, Internet of Medical Devices, Web 3.0, intelligent cloud, edge, and quantum computing along with robotics to provide new directions to healthcare. Metaverse involves the convergence of telepresence, digital twinning, and blockchain major technological trends, which all have the potential to impact healthcare individually. The Metaverse is already showing signs in digital therapeutics is seeing rapid adoption of this form of therapy, where VR and AR tech in the metaverse enables applications such as cognitive therapy, support groups, psychiatric evaluations, rehabilitation, and even physical therapy with the support of haptic sensors.

On Aug. 4, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra declared the ongoing spread of monkeypox virus in the U.S. a public health emergency - the FDA is working to get vaccines to affected communities. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra announced on Aug. 4 that he will declare the ongoing spread of monkeypox virus in the United States a Public Health Emergency (PHE). A press release from HHS states that “This action will further strengthen and accelerate the Biden-Harris Administration’s response in recognition of the continued rapid transmission of monkeypox in the U.S. and globally, and to signal the seriousness and urgency with which the Administration is responding."  The announcement comes on the heels of President Biden appointing Robert Fenton of the Federal Emergency Management Agency as White House National Monkeypox Response Coordinator and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator.”

Pear Therapeutics, a company that offers digital therapy programs by prescription, has let go of 9 percent of its workforce, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Digital twins are virtual representations of an object or system that spans its lifecycle, is updated from real-time data, and use simulation, machine learning and reasoning to help decision-making (IBM). By using digital twins to model a person, you can use technologies like natural language processing (NLP) to better understand data and uncover other useful insights that will help improve use cases from customer experience to patient care. Digital twins can be useful in synthesizing this information to provide actionable insights. Kaiser Permanente uses digital twins through a system that improves patient flow within a hospital. In another instance, Roche uses digital twins to help securely integrate and display relevant aggregated data about cancer patients into a single, holistic patient timeline. By building a digital twin, you can compare an individual to other patients – similar in clinically important ways – to see if there are genomic similarities and how certain treatments have impacted them. Creating a digital twin to anticipate patient needs and the length of their stay can be very valuable. For example, creating the digital twin of a patient’s heart enables a doctor to see exactly what’s going on — whether there is scarring from previous surgeries or an abnormality that needs to be inspected further — and make better decisions before an operation, rather than during.

Over twenty years later, we may be reducing medical errors — a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found significant decreases in mistakes in cases of pneumonia, acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and surgery between 2010 and 2019 — but the way we’re reacting to people who disclose them is worrying. To her credit, Vaught did come forward when she realized what had occurred, but Vanderbilt didn’t report the error to the government or medical examiner. When it comes to medical errors, it’s not the so-called crime that’s concerning, it’s the cover-up. Up to 9,000 annual deaths are reportedly attributed to medication errors alone. We also don’t have a very precise definition of medical errors, so the lack of reporting may be motivated more by ignorance than a desire to hide the facts. That lack of definition limits the effectiveness of systems — communication and resolution programs (CRPs) are new ways of reducing errors, hospitals’ safety reporting systems allow staffers to communicate anything that affects patient safety that are in place and are known to work; a recent meta-analysis from 2018 showed a significant reduction in mortality from using the World Health Organization’s surgical safety checklist developed to decrease errors in the operating room. Physicians, prosecutors, and administrators should be working on defining medical errors and training providers on how to optimally use the systems in place rather than penalizing and prosecuting providers who commit errors due to failed systems or whistleblowers.

Smart algorithms will soon diagnose skin cancer, dermatologists consult patients online, and 3D printers will print out synthetic skin to fight tissue shortages. Skin cancer is too common Data from the US Skin Cancer Foundation suggests that each year over 5.4 million cases of non-melanoma skin cancer are treated in more than 3.3 million people only in the US. The annual cost of treating skin cancers there is estimated at $8.1 billion: about $4.8 billion for non-melanoma skin cancers and $3.3 billion for melanoma, which is an insanely huge number. Luckily, digital technologies are on their way to help dermatologists diagnose and treat skin diseases better and more effectively. As you can easily detect if you have a skin problem, and smartphones coupled with super-fast internet connection make it easy to send pictures or footage anywhere, telehealth solutions appeared naturally in dermatology. FirstDerm, DermatologistOnCall, Direct Dermatology, Online Skin Specialist or iDoc24 and you can find many other providers. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Google decided to throw their hat in the ring: the tech giant launched an A.I.-based app to diagnose skin conditions. Many skin cancer types and other skin problems are treated with laser therapies, and a study found that robots might be able to help there.

The lack of diversity in clinical trials unfairly skews American medicine and costs billions of dollars a year in early deaths and poor health. The 2022 National Academies report showed that progress had been made on representation of white women in trials, but had stalled for people in underserved racial and ethnic populations. An analysis created for the NASEM report using the Future Elderly Model developed by the USC Schaeffer Center found that hundreds of billions of dollars will be lost over the next 25 years due to reduced life expectancy, shortened disability-free lives, and fewer years working among populations that are not proportionately represented in clinical trials.

If just 1% of health disparities were alleviated by improved diversity in clinical trials, the Schaeffer model estimates that would result in more than $40 billion in gains for diabetes and $60 billion for heart disease. Among its bundle of recommendations, the National Academies’ committee urged the FDA to study new inducements for sponsors that meet clinical trial representativeness criteria, including tax credits, fast-track eligibility, exemption from some FDA application fees, and extended market exclusivity for drugs. The National Academies report recommends that the Department of Health and Human Services, the FDA, the National Institutes of Health, and other federal agencies write new regulations and impose new requirements for diversity in clinical trials. The authors were members of the committee that wrote the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering report “Improving Representation in Clinical Trials and Research: Building Research Equity for Women and Underrepresented Groups.”

In 2021, the U.S. virtual visits market was valued at over $5 billion. Around $250 billion in healthcare spending could be saved by using virtual care, which in turn, lead to high adoption of virtual visit across U.S. Chicago, Aug. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to Arizton’s latest research report, U.S. virtual visits market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 27% during 2022-2027. It is expected to expand at an exponential growth rate in the next two years due to the increasing demand for virtual visits. The surge in virtual visits in the US has been mainly observed during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is likely to augur well for the market in the upcoming years.

Like most cash-strapped startups, Ruth Health began leveraging social media to advertise the company. But the content proved “offensive” to those platforms: Early in 2020, Instagram took down a post that used the word “vagina.” On Pinterest, one of Ruth Health’s ads showing a breastfeeding woman was flagged for inappropriate content. “It quite frankly puzzles us, but unfortunately if we want to do this on the platform, we have to abide by the rules they set,” Wu said. “We have to talk about it right upfront because we know these issues are out there, and (founders) need to have a plan around how they’re going to market what they’re building, given where the hurdles are,” said Naseem Sayani, cofounder and managing director at Emmeline Ventures.

“We believe that a pleasure-first product, the product that creates erotica, is a sexual wellness product,” said Gina Gutierrez, co-founder and chief creative officer at Dipsea. “I can confidently say that it makes investors second-guess investing in sexual wellness businesses,” Gutierrez said. The Lowdown, a London-based femtech startup, also experienced getting flagged on Meta platforms. “We don’t allow people to facilitate, encourage or coordinate sexual activity on Instagram,” the platform said. “It’s just another barrier for women trying to find information about this kind of stuff,” said Matilda Lucy, digital marketing strategist at The Lowdown. Despite the barriers to social media marketing, startups have found ways around big platforms. “It’s a barrier to growth and conversion, but it’s not a dealbreaker because there’s so many ways to reach that end consumer … it actually becomes about, how creative is that founder being around navigating around those hurdles?” said Emmeline Ventures’ Sayani From the startup perspective, Dipsea has invested a larger share of marketing dollars in podcast ads, capitalizing on the shared audio platform.

The Chronic Care Management (CCM) Software Market research combines a quantitative assessment of overseas markets with a fresh perspective on the target industry. The Chronic Care Management (CCM) Software Market research study examines the market’s primary features and prospects, as well as market constraints and significant competitors, firm profiles, and general strategies for acquiring a footing in local and marketplaces. By evaluating historical data and future projections, this report predicts the total market size based on a worldwide scenario. Overall, the report would provide critical market data to forward-thinking clients aiming to prosper in the worldwide Chronic Care Management (CCM) Software business. The business report provides a thorough and reliable examination of micro and macroeconomic issues, as well as market value interpretations that are anticipated to affect industry trends.

The report gives insight into the prospects of the worldwide Chronic Care Management (CCM) Software market, which will assist rivals in increasing their profit share. Individuals as well as industries involved in the Chronic Care Management (CCM) Software market can find the research report a reliable source of advice and insight, as it provides significant business statistics. The Chronic Care Management (CCM) Software research report also provides a quantitative examination of the many factors that have contributed to the sector’s development, including nations, suppliers, forms, and market scale, as well as market aspects. Consumers will be able to define the number of factors that sustain and monitor the Chronic Care Management (CCM) Software business growth register using the Chronic Care Management (CCM) Software market research. In addition, the Chronic Care Management (CCM) Software sector reflects an in-depth industry environment, development prospects, and market shares with the aid of product divisions, primary industries, implementations, and geographical research.

A year after raising $100 million, weight loss-focused digital health startup Calibrate has laid off 24 percent of its employees.

"As a result of the restructuring, the company extends its runway and accelerates its path to profitability," a Calibrate spokesperson emailed Becker's.

Despite vaccine availability and the reopening of clinical offices after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth remains a popular choice for orthopedic patients, according to published results. “In conclusion, interest in orthopedic telehealth was steadily growing prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and remains significantly elevated beyond pre-pandemic levels despite the reopening of clinical offices and the introduction of vaccine availability across the country,” the researchers wrote in the study.

We have been proactively working with medical device sterilizers to reduce the amount of EtO they use while still effectively sterilizing products to help ensure they meet the EPA’s standards for ethylene oxide emission levels. Over the past few years, we have prioritized reducing the use of ethylene oxide and several actions to develop programs and initiatives to support innovation in medical device sterilization. For example, we launched the EtO Sterilization Master File Pilot Program for premarket approval (PMA) holders of high-risk devices that enables certain changes between sterilization processes and facilities that reduces the amount of ethylene oxide concentrations used to sterilize medical devices without compromising safety and effectiveness. Collectively, these programs encourage new ways to sterilize medical devices that reduce the potential impact of ethylene oxide on the environment and public health, and we are committed to continuing to prioritize these efforts. Our supply chain program is ready to work with industry to help prevent and mitigate potential shortages due to reduced supply of certain ethylene oxide sterilized medical devices.

Astellas Pharma: Astellas is opening a new integrated biotechnology campus in South Francisco to house key research, medical and development and commercial and administrative operations. Additionally, the center includes a new research team that is focused on harnessing chemical biology techniques in support of the company’s oncology drug development programs and pipeline. The company, which is focused on developing treatments for pain and cancer, said that the layoffs were necessary to “to address the challenging operating landscape and better position Heron to improve the lives of patients while creating long-term value for shareholders.” Although no specific numbers in regards to employee cuts were given, cost reduction is definitely a priority for the company as they are looking toward cutting operational costs down to between $12M and $14M. The layoffs are part of the company's plan to focus on advancing its most advanced product candidates and reduce operating expenses. Eisai: a Japanese pharmaceutical company, also announced plans to cut costs by reducing staff in conclusion to H3 Biomedicine, a US-based subsidiary. Assembly Biosciences: Assembly Bio, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, said that it would be reducing its workforce by 30% in order to focus on its most advanced programs. X4 Pharmaceuticals: X4, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that it was reducing its workforce by approximately 20%.

–  Adventist HealthCare has selected Innovaccer Inc., the Health Cloud company to be their next-generation population health management and value-based care partner. “By unifying patient data on the Innovaccer Health Cloud, we can identify opportunities to deliver more timely and relevant care to continually improve our patients’ care experience.

Driven by a desire to deliver the outcomes that matter most to patients, their families, and society, Eva uses her ability to collaborate and build transformative partnerships with those looking to push boundaries, drive healthcare innovation, learn from past lessons, and co-create a better future together. She shares her key insights on the necessity of collaboration to transform healthcare and how to evaluate partnerships to ensure mutual benefit for all. As Eva moves into her new role as General Manager for Roche Slovenia, we’ve met to talk about why she believes partnerships are the key to advancing healthcare transformation and innovation. Our conversation is taking place just weeks after Eva wrapped up her Healthcare Innovation Talks series in which she was in conversation with several healthcare ecosystem partners. 

Together they discussed and shared key insights into some of the more innovative approaches stakeholders can be taking to partnering as they seek to prepare for the healthcare system challenges – and opportunities – of the future. The last time I experienced such a transformational moment in healthcare was back in 2003 when the sequencing of the human genome took medicine to a new level,” Eva says. Advancements in technology and a renewed spark for healthcare innovation paves the way for novel partnerships It’s at these crossroads that the insights that lead to healthcare innovation happen,” Eva says. What is new is that stakeholders from different parts of the healthcare system and beyond are coming together and they are also willing to use new partnership approaches. There’s even an openness to explore so-called “user innovations” – partnerships that have no formal contracts and that do not involve any monetary exchanges, Eva says. The students had the chance to work on some of the biggest topics in healthcare and Roche had the opportunity to spot talented students who might want to join our company,” Eva says. Eva, who joined Roche BeLux in 2019, together with her team set up several innovative partnerships between Roche and various stakeholders, including an exciting collaboration with Academics, AI experts, and Hack Belgium, a think tank that has brought together 60 ecosystem partners to provide practical solutions in Ophthalmology to prevent, diagnose, and treat sight loss, as one example. 

All of the partnerships are focused on developing practical, workable, and useable frameworks that will empower all of us to reach our own health goals within a system that makes efficient use of limited resources and delivers optimum results for individuals and society,” Eva says. We will have the partnerships that will innovate the way we design and deliver healthcare,” Eva says. When evaluating potential ecosystem partnerships, Eva McLellan has distinguished 5 key elements for healthcare executives to consider. “Ultimately all of this will lead to the outcomes that matter most to patients, their families, their doctors, their nurses, and society,” Eva says, adding that placing more emphasis on the outcomes healthcare systems are achieving is going to become increasingly important as demand for already strained resources intensifies. By bringing the different parts of the healthcare system together, it will be possible to address problems such as fragmented care pathways, disjointed data collection, and an inability to accurately measure outcomes, Eva says. In other words, working in partnership is one of the key components required to successfully implement Value-Based Healthcare, she says. We have a new generation of thinkers, visionaries, architects, and innovators that is ready to replace the traditional model of transactional healthcare with responsive, nimble, outcomes-focused systems that put people’s health goals front and center.

Artificial intelligence, wearable sensors, virtual reality, medical robots, social media and the like – in a couple of years, disruptive technologies will completely change the way patients and doctors think and act about healthcare. A cultural transformation of how disruptive technologies that provide digital and objective data accessible to both caregivers and patients leads to an equal level of doctor-patient relationship with shared decision-making and the democratisation of care. Unlike before, digital technologies, social media, wearables, and trackers provide medical data and knowledge to many more stakeholders in healthcare beyond doctors. As patients have access to online medical information sources, patient communities on social media, wearables and health sensors providing medical data, they could present more questions and more knowledge related to their own health. The patient might assume a more “mature” position, while the doctor might become a guide in the jungle of digital health instead of being a declaratory reference point. Currently, and in the future more than ever, physicians should team up with technology to provide their best performance and the most efficient care to their patients.

As technology provides more and more responses to numerous medical questions that were answered by medical professionals before, personal patient-doctor communication will become less frequent and more valuable. Also, neither artificial intelligence nor virtual reality or health trackers will be able to solve complex cases, so in general, creativity and problem solving will become skills to nurture and look for in the future generation of medical professionals. As the landscape of medicine is as diverse as the metabolic composition of the human body, technological change affects the various medical specialties differently. The illustration shows that medical specialities that rely heavily on medical imaging and laboratories, will be significantly influenced by the digital health revolution including radiology, pathology – and other non-diagnostic fields, such as nephrology, rheumatology, haematology and dermatology. Chatbots could even become the first line of primary care – meaning that patients might only get a doctor’s appointment if the A.I.-based chatbot could not offer sufficient medical help. Moreover, artificial intelligence-based predictive algorithms could help epidemiologists better fight disease outbreaks, gene therapies, and digital contact lenses make eye care more efficient, virtual reality, exoskeletons or exercising machines could shorten rehabilitation time or alleviate pain. Certain medical fields will most likely experience a different effect of digital health technologies.

All specialities where human factors such as empathy and caring attention are the core of the practice, high levels of creativity and problem solving, and quick decision-making abilities will override any technological solution in the majority of cases. Regarding emergency medicine, portable diagnostic devices or medical drones can significantly reduce the time until a patient receives a proper diagnosis or specific treatment, but the ambulance crew will always remain indispensable on the spot. As the technological revolution has a different impact on every medical specialty, the necessary skill-set for successfully picking up the ins and outs of a healthcare field also widely varies. However, we could discern some general skills and principles based on the requirements of the digital age and technologically boosted healthcare. For decades, the medical community has left the single most important player out of every major decision regarding healthcare: the patient. Medical students and doctors should understand and embrace the idea once and for all that the patient is at the centre of our universe. Patient design should be the mantra of medical students, but physicians should also remind themselves from time to time – as it is still not as axiomatic as tourists around La Tour Eiffel.

Medical students, physicians, nurses and other medical professionals should try health apps, fitness trackers, and wearables themselves to be able to recommend those to patients. Besides, if they familiarise themselves with fitness and health technology, it will also get a lot easier to understand their patients’ concerns and questions about them, while they will realise that the recommendations are not just the results of pharmaceutical or other medical company sales representatives’ successful sales tactics. Knowing how to search for, find and assess information; assessing the quality of medical websites; knowing how to work with empowered patients should all be essential skills for physicians of the near future. Patients submit their cases to the site, and medical students, retired doctors, nurses or even laypeople offer their potential diagnoses. On top of that, interconnectedness and access to quality medical information by the patient communities can provide knowledge pockets that find their way to the literature years later.

In 2019, the company launched its first commercial device: Milli Trainer, a pelvic floor dilator with adjustable sizing to help women dealing with painful sex. The femtech sector coined by the founder of the fertility tracking app Clue in 2016 has steadily risen in the ranks of venture capital funding as more and more startups dedicated to women’s health have sprung up. Among those startups raising funding in 2022 are Ruth Health, a telehealth startup dedicated to lactation support and postpartum care such as pelvic floor exercises, raised $2.4 million in seed funding in April.