Telemedicine technology is experiencing a new wave of innovation. With the growing emergence of IoT and AI in healthcare solutions, Telemedicine is getting more advanced. From wearable healthcare devices to remote patient monitoring, IoT and AI are empowering telemedicine technology to deliver efficient healthcare services in various ways.
As a result, the telemedicine market is reaching higher levels. According to Allied Market Research, the global telemedicine market is projected to reach $431,823.81 Million by 2030 at a CAGR of 25.90%.
This increased growth is due to expanding usage of IoT and AI in digital healthcare solutions. Healthcare service providers and medical institutions are leveraging hi-tech devices and software applications to streamline their processes and services.
So what does the future of telemedicine technology with IoT and AI look like? Let’s take a look at this.
What is telemedicine?
Telemedicine is about using telecommunication technologies to provide remote healthcare services to patients. It is the practice of caring for patients remotely while utilizing hardware devices, software, and other technologies. Telemedicine technology works as a communication medium between the patient and the healthcare service provider. It bridges the gap and allows both service providers and patients to exchange information in real time without the need for physical interaction.
Why is the demand for telemedicine growing?
Telemedicine is a highly useful and transformative technology. It enables a new standard of healthcare by connecting patients to doctors or service providers digitally. And thus, it assists in improving overall efficiency, quality, and delivery of clinical and medical facilities at cost and time efficiently.
At present, clinics, hospitals, and medical institutions widely use telemedicine technology. They utilize it to streamline their daily operations and enhance accessibility to their services. Startups and businesses hire dedicated mobile app developers to build innovative telemedicine app solutions. Here are the recent statistics that indicate the growing size of telemedicine in the healthcare sector.
- 80% of consumers have used telemedicine at least once.
- 74% of millennials prefer telehealth visits rather than visiting doctors in person.
- According to a report Clinicians of the Future, 56% of clinicians think they will use artificial intelligence for clinical decisions.
Hence, considering the latest telemedicine market statistics, it is evident to see how significantly this sector is growing. And this growing adoption of telehealth or telemedicine in healthcare services is due to the following reasons-
Wide Accessibility to Healthcare
Telemedicine gives enhanced accessibility and reaches standard healthcare and medical services for rural and underprivileged populations. People who can’t afford to access expensive or high-standard service providers. With telemedicine, they can easily access premium healthcare services online.
By using smartphones and mobile apps, they can meet doctors online in real-time and get diagnosis and treatment facilities at reduced cost and time. Therefore, telemedicine app development is emerging as a future-proof investment for healthcare startups.
Fast and Cost-Efficient Services
Telemedicine technology allows remote patient monitoring and real-time data collection. By using wearable medical and IoT devices they can track patient data more accurately and quickly. In addition to this, AI-powered telemedicine systems help medical institutions to automatically analyze patient data and generate reports faster. Thus, it supports healthcare service providers deliver fast and cost-efficient patient care services.
Safer Environment
Since telemedicine eliminates the need for physical interaction, it promotes a safer environment for everyone. Patients who have infectious diseases like cold, and flu can consult doctors online through telemedicine apps. Doctors can also prescribe medical prescriptions via video conferencing. They can also monitor patients remotely from a safer and more distant location and check patient progress online.
Better Clinical Efficiency
Telemedicine technology benefits healthcare service providers in several ways. It allows them to use smart medical devices and healthcare applications for managing various operations. For instance, an EHR (Electronic Health Records) system enables hospitals to instantly compare test results. And also overview patient history, and conduct thorough assessments. It eliminates the need for immense paperwork and loss or loss of sensitive patient data. Hence, with telemedicine, medical and healthcare management institutions can improve their clinical efficiency.
How are IoT and AI impacting the future of telemedicine?
The Internet of Things and artificial intelligence are among the top innovative technologies in the industry. The Internet of Things (IoT) enables a diverse range of devices and applications to connect to a common server. By integrating IoT into telemedicine, service providers and patients both can leverage their combined benefits.
And with AI, they can build more intelligent and feature-rich medical devices or tracking equipment for better results. In addition to this, the combined integration of IoT and AI in telemedicine app development helps healthcare organizations and service providers build innovative solutions for patients. Therefore, IoT and AI are impacting the future of telemedicine. Here are the prominent factors that are playing a major role
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Fast & Accurate Diagnosis
IoT devices come with the ability to collect and feed real-time data. It allows to record of sensitive patient data quickly. But since it doesn’t have the brain to deduce a conclusion or insightful report, IoT limits only recording data. And this is where AI comes in. When artificial intelligence is combined with IoT, it enables the device to analyze ability. The IoT device powered with AI can only collect data faster but also produce useful reports and insights for accurate diagnosis.
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AI-Powered Health Assistants & Robots
We all are familiar with Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and other popular AI assistants. These all are equipped with artificial intelligence that enables them to mimic human-like activities. Now, this ability is being utilized in telemedicine and other healthcare services. Many companies are working on the development of Robots and smart health assistants.
These robots and health assistants would be fully empowered with the combined power of AI and IoT. They will assist patients in healthcare not only physically but also by giving tips and reminders. However, this development is currently on trial. But if things go in the right direction, the future of telemedicine and healthcare could be a boon for all.
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Data security in healthcare
Digitalization and mobile app penetration in healthcare is benefiting in several ways. But at the same time, cybersecurity and data privacy in healthcare is also becoming a top concern.
Modern people today widely prefer using telemedicine services from mobile devices and apps. Hospitals and clinics use different IoT and wearable medical devices for collecting sensitive patient data.
This increases the risk of potential data theft and privacy breach of patients. Thus, there is a drastic need for ensuring and protecting patient health in all use cases. At this point, AI stands out as the powerful technology solution to make IoT and other devices fully secure from data breaches. Top iOS app development companies in USA widely use AI in application development for enhancing data security.
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Rapid Data Transmission
IoT devices empower doctors and clinical professionals to collect data at a much faster rate than traditional methods. Conventional medical equipment or hardware devices take much space and effort for measuring patient data. But with AI-powered IoT medical devices, healthcare professionals can gather data quickly while on the go.
They don’t have to depend on typical and large devices which occupy large space. IoT devices are handy and easy to carry. As a result, it could help them measure sensitive data through rapid data transmission and save patient life. Hence, considering this great advantage, there is a huge scope for IoT and AI in the future of telemedicine.
Final Thoughts
Telemedicine is a highly useful technology. It empowers both service providers and patients to leverage modern technologies and achieve better outcomes. And since telemedicine provides a wide scope for utilizing IoT and AI together for multiple healthcare use cases, the duo power of IoT and AI has great potential to impact the future of telemedicine.
For healthcare startups and entrepreneurs, it gives promising opportunities to establish their ventures. However, the use of IoT and AI is in the evolution stage. The best way would be to take assistance from a professional telemedicine app development company to build smart telemedicine solutions.
Author Bio
Ishan Gupta is the CEO and Co-founder of RipenApps, a leading web and mobile app development company specializing in Android and iOS app development. Deploying feature-loaded mobile & web app solutions to SMBs globally transforms business all around.
