AI, healthtech, device design, patient outcomes…what will be key to the medtech sector in 2020? Some of the industry’s experts share their insights.
The global healthcare sector in 2020 will see expenditures continue to escalate, driven by rising staff shortages, increasingly squeezed budgets, and an ageing / growing population. In fact, figures from the PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) project a 6% medical cost trend (the projected percentage increase in the cost to treat patients from one year to the next, assuming the benefits remain the same). To mediate this issue, healthcare systems will need to innovate and embrace new medical technology to improve care delivery and better streamline efficiencies.
Using AI to give healthcare a personal touch
Dr Ian Roberts, chief technology officer at Healx
“AI is transforming every industry in which it is implemented, with its impact upon the healthcare sector already saving lives and improving medical diagnosis. However, the transformative effect of AI is set to switch healthcare on its head, as the technology leads to a shift from reactive treatments targeting populations to proactive prevention tailored to the individual patient.
“The future is set to see AI-generated healthcare recommendations extend to include personalised treatment plans. An example of this is the ability to mitigate the risk of a person developing a chronic illness by having the foresight to make changes in lifestyle choices ahead of diagnosis. This medical understanding will be formed in part by their own genome, combined with machine learning algorithms. To date, consumer personal genomics companies such as 23andMe are already helping to inform people of the need to manage their health; this ranges from avoiding coffee late at night to elevated risks of dementia and certain cancers.”
Improving patient outcomes with data
Alan Jacobsen, chief data & analytic officer at Alteryx
“In 2020, we can expect to see better patient outcomes fuelled largely by the growing prevalence of data science and analytics. Much of the data that is required to solve some really key challenges that exists in the public domain, and in the next year we expect more and more healthcare organisations will implement tools that help to assess this rich information as well as gain actionable insight.
In 2019, we have seen issues such as the over prescription of opioids in the UK come under scrutiny, and data analytics has gone a long way in showing the patterns between misuse and other factors such as geography and social demographics. The first step to making a change is identifying these patterns, and we expect to see other challenges benefit from solutions that let not only technical staff, but workers in all lines of healthcare input data and extract value."
Keeping vital systems safe
Chris Sherry, regional VP EMEA North at Forescout
“Increasingly, hospitals and other healthcare organisations are enjoying the benefits of IP-connected medical devices such as infusion pumps, heart monitors and even smart inhalers. The improvements they can bring to patient care are becoming well-known, as are the security issues these devices can pose if not appropriately monitored; in 2020, we’d expect to see budgets align with the issue of securing these devices effectively so that hackers can not take advantage.”
Connecting patients with IomT
Bob Zemke CISSP CPHIMS, director of healthcare solutions at Extreme Networks
“The rapid growth of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) over the last few years has brought huge benefits to medical organisations and their patients alike. However, creating increasingly connected environments also brings new risks as cyber criminals try and exploit device and network vulnerabilities to wreak havoc. In fact, our recent global survey found that 1 in 5 healthcare IT professionals are unsure if every medical device on the network has all the latest software patches installed - creating a porous security infrastructure that can easily be bypassed. 2020 will be the year where healthcare organisations of all sizes will need to realise that they are easy pickings for cyber criminals, and put a robust, reliable and resilient network security infrastructure in place to protect themselves adequately.”
Healthcare and foundational technology
Mark Gaydos, CMO at Nlyte Software
Healthcare is an industry where technology and results are closely intertwined, so delivering improved digital outcomes for patients in 2020 will be a natural aim for global healthcare providers. In the main this will come from the ease with which healthcare providers are accessing and analysing data through analytics. The technology underlying must support the trend to public or private cloud-delivered services and so 2020 will naturally see a greater focus on compliance with industry regulation, and a desire to optimise existing systems prior to moving them to more modern platforms, or to better speed up the process of digital delivery for online services.”
