In 2020, the world witnessed in disbelief how a virus shut down the world. As the COVID-19 pandemic swept through nations, it paralyzed healthcare systems across the globe, prompting calls to adopt digital health. COVID-19 changed everything about healthcare delivery in 2020 and experts say we’ll see more disruptions of the status quo and acceleration of virtual care adoptions.
Read more How COVID-19 Pandemic Is Accelerating Digital Health with No Signs of Downtrend
Here are 5 predictions for healthcare in 2021
Remote patient care and telemedicine
The pandemic has increased the popularity of telemedicine as people around the globe chose to maintain social distance. This has proved that remote consultations are not only possible, but these practices are easy to achieve and preferred by many. In 2021, telemedicine and remote patient monitoring will continue to thrive. According to MarketsAndMarkets report, the global telehealth and telemedicine market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 37.7% during the forecast period, to reach USD 191.7 billion by 2025 from an estimated USD 38.7 billion in 2020.
Virtual Reality
According to a report by Research and Markets, the global VR market was valued at USD 3.13 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach USD 49.7 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 58.54% over the forecast period (2018-2023). With big companies such as Sony and HTC entering, and technological advancements in VR are expected to generate a plethora of VR solutions with diverse capabilities, which allow consumers to experience utmost immersion.
Wearables
Self-monitoring applications come in many forms, but one that’s seeing promising returns is wearable devices, a market that’s expected to reach more than $27 million in 2023, up from $8 million in 2017, reports TheNextWeb. The wearable devices market is empowering people to take charge of their own healthcare. 2021 will be the year where wearables will make a giant leap with devices that monitor blood Oxygen saturation, heart rate, social distancing, and more.
Image: UusiAjaja, Wikimedia Commons
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting the healthcare industry greatly and in 2021 AI will play a huge role in the digital transformation of healthcare. According to MarketsAndMarkets, the global AI in healthcare market size is expected to grow from USD 4.9 billion in 2020 and reach USD 45.2 billion by 2026; it is projected to grow at a CAGR of 44.9% during the forecast period. The major factors driving the market growth are the increasing volume of healthcare data and growing complexities of datasets driving the need for AI, the intensifying need to reduce towering healthcare costs, improving computing power and declining hardware costs, a growing number of cross-industry partnerships and collaborations, and rising imbalance between health workforce and patients driving the need for improvised healthcare services.
Read more Global Medical Wearables Market Size to Reach US $85.6 Billion by 2027
Advancements in EHR
The federal government has passed new regulations that aim to help patients gain better control of their health data via smartphone apps, interoperability is expected to increase between providers, payers and health tech developers. One of the most advantageous features involved with electronic health records is security. In the new year, more advanced EHR systems will help the healthcare industry maintain privacy and security of patient data.
