4 Trends that are Changing Healthcare and Life Sciences

As the digital revolution transforms the fields of healthcare and life sciences, organizations and individuals stand to gain from new trends that use data in innovative ways to provide better patient outcomes. To leverage these developments, organizations need to embrace a cloud data platform as part of their digital transformation. All four of the following trends require the flexibility, security, and accessibility of the cloud to achieve their full potential.

Mobile Health

The advent of mobile health data applications, or mHealth, has given patients on-demand access to their health information. Through these apps, patients can view their medical records, communicate with their care team, and manage appointments and billing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Centralized electronic health record (EHR) systems have enabled self-service patient data management, empowering individuals to better track information about their health. The total global mHealth market is predicted to reach nearly $100 billion in 2021.

Genomic Analytics

Breakthroughs in genomic research and DNA sequencing have led to the growth of precision medicine, also known as personalized medicine. Precision medicine requires a holistic understanding of the entire genome of a patient, summarized through the analysis of petabytes of genetic data. The field of genomics is rapidly expanding, with different branches of precision medicine involving the integration of various data. 

Pharmacogenomics, as just one example, takes clinical- and drug-related data into account along with genomic data to determine drug effectiveness and the risk of adverse events in particular patients. The research-based applications of genomics are wide-ranging and constantly evolving, spanning genotyping initiatives to genome editing and advanced epigenetic analysis. According to global management firm L.E.K. Consulting, “we are only at the beginning of the genomics revolution.”

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)

IoMT comprises a universe of medical devices and applications that are connected to healthcare IT systems via the internet. It includes a range of internet-connected devices including consumer health wearables, remote patient monitoring trackers, sensor-enabled hospital beds, medication-tracking systems, and medical supplies and equipment inventory tracking systems. 

The expanding IoMT ecosystem is transforming healthcare and improving patient outcomes by enabling remote monitoring of patients with chronic diseases, improving drug management, and delivering a better patient experience. It is also increasing the safety of medical supplies and reducing costs. To reap the benefits, healthcare organizations are starting to invest heavily in this promising new space: It is estimated that the IoMT market will be worth $158.1 billion in 2022.

Emerging Technologies

Emerging technologies such as AI, machine learning, and blockchain hold incredible promise for the future of healthcare and life sciences organizations. From improving patient care to accelerating medical research and clinical trial analysis, organizations stand to provide potentially limitless benefits for patients and customers. 

According to Deloitte, “AI is just beginning to be applied in life sciences to help with the intelligent use of data. It has the potential to revolutionize diagnoses, treatment planning, patient monitoring, and drug discovery.” Meanwhile, blockchain enables healthcare and life sciences organizations to collect information easily and share it securely without undue manual intervention or errors.

The Potential of the Cloud

By embracing a cloud data platform such as Snowflake Cloud Data Platform, healthcare and life sciences organizations can empower patients with mobile health data applications, drive innovation with large-scale genomic analytics, reap the many benefits of the growing IoMT ecosystem, and build the next generation of healthcare applications. 

To find out if your healthcare organization is ready to deploy these trends to deliver better customer service and patient care, download our ebook, 5 Ways Data Is Transforming Healthcare and Life Sciences.