Scientists have tried to imagine the future of hospitals for centuries. It is natural to wonder what these changes will mean for healthcare institutions, given the recent shift towards digital technology and the adoption remote care methods, which was partly precipitated by the COVID-19 epidemic. What are their future plans? Oder will hospitals be completely gone in a decade?
Yes, physical institutions will continue to be a part of the future healthcare system. Their roles will change from what they are now. They will incorporate new design elements, be able to use digital health technology, and become specialist centres for acute care, invasive procedures, and disease prevention. A significant amount of care will be outsourced outside hospitals, and healthcare professionals will have to adapt new roles.
The Medical Futurist published an e-book called A Guide to the Future Of Hospitals to help hospitals understand the future trends and what is required to make them future-ready. This e-book, which includes input from industry experts and seven chapters, aims to provide policymakers, healthcare professionals, and digital health business owners with sufficient insights to help them prepare for the future.
This article outlines five trends that will shape the future hospital. Our e-book provides more information and we encourage you to purchase a copy of The Guide To The Future Of Hospitals.
1. The POC is moving towards homes
Point-of-care (POC), is the place where care is provided. This was traditionally the patient's room in a hospital. Recent years have shown that the POC is now broader than hospital walls and includes patients, thanks to remote care or telehealth services.
Patients can now be monitored remotely and receive recommendations for healthcare from their home. This innovation has led to the creation of virtual wards.
Patients can access virtual wards via remote monitoring health tools to receive remote support. These tools provide real-time monitoring that can be combined with two-way communications to allow patients to communicate with their healthcare professionals. If they detect signs of deterioration, the latter can provide prompt intervention. A visiting nurse performs procedures such as intravenous therapy that require professionals.
These approaches have been tested in the U.K., U.S., Singapore, and Australia. Hospitals must be able to accommodate such care delivery methods as they will become more common.
2. Remote care consultations: Designing spaces
Remote care will not only be used for virtual wards, but also for a large number of outpatient consultations. McKinsey predicts that 25% of all outpatient services will be telemedicine in the future.
This approach can reduce unnecessary visits and improve patient experiences. Hospitals must be able to accommodate such care delivery methods.
Virtual consultations and remote care will require a rethinking of clinical spaces. These rooms will have user-friendly sound, lighting control and dual screens that allow for simultaneous communication with patients and access to their medical records,” Dr Diana Anderson explained to The Medical Futurist.
3. Voice-to-text, from hand-written notes to voice
New technologies will be needed to improve the efficiency of hospital staff. Although most hospitals rely on EHR systems for their medical records, this could be hindering doctors' ability to work more efficiently. They spend a lot of time entering data into EHRs and have less time to spend with patients. EHRs are often viewed as the number one problem by some.
Voice-to-text technology is a promising alternative to manually entering data into EHRs. Voice-to-text technology works by using a voice recognition system, which listens to patient-doctor consultations and transcribes them without the need for physical input.
These solutions are already available from some companies and can be deployed in hospitals by others. Nuance and 3M offer voice recognition services to create clinical notes that can be integrated into EHRs. Augmedix's Notebuilder software extracts clinical data from doctor-patient conversation using speech recognition and natural language processing. The patient's EHR will then receive the comprehensive medical notes.
Physicians will be able spend more time with patients and provide better medical care by reducing the manual input into EHRs.
4. A.I. in decision-making
Artificial intelligence (A.I.) is another technology that has the potential to improve hospital functioning. Artificial intelligence (A.I.) can help with everything from alarm fatigue reduction through triaging, to clinical decision-making.
A.I. A.I. can assist in many diagnostic processes. Software such as this can help identify and quantify conditions like ADHD and sleep disorders.
A.I.-powered tools could be the doctor's new assistant, able to crunch through large amounts of data from EHRs and radiological scans. They can detect patterns and make recommendations. These recommendations can be interpreted by physicians who will determine the best clinical path for each patient.
A.I. Healthcare has a lot of potential and hospitals should be able accommodate it. The cloud computing infrastructure could be a way to make healthcare facilities A.I.-ready. However, the medical staff must also become familiar with the technology's real potential.
5. How hospitals can protect patient data through cybersecurity
Healthcare establishments must be aware of the cybersecurity risks associated with increasing digitisation. Cyberattacks, which have increased since the COVID-19 epidemic, can compromise patient data and force cancellation of vital services like radiology exams or surgeries.
Therefore, hospitals should have proper cybercrime prevention strategies and protocols in place. They can train and educate staff to recognize and counter the activities of malicious third party that often exploit human psychology.
Technically, it is important to use anti-virus and antivirus protection. Operating systems and software applications must be up-to-date. In fact, outdated software was the main cause of WannaCry's cyberattack on 61 NHS hospitals in 2017.
Hospitals will also need to make sure that the privacy of patients' data is protected. A.I. will be used more frequently by hospitals. As hospitals increasingly employ A.I., they will have to use patient data to train algorithms, often in collaboration with Big Tech companies. Patients might not be informed about such uses. Google's DeepMind A.I. and the Royal Free London NHS Trust is an example of this. This is demonstrated by the collaboration between Google's DeepMind A.I. unit and Royal Free London NHS Trust. The Royal Free London NHS Trust was the most recent example. In this case, some healthcare-related information of approximately 1.6 million patients was shared without informing patients.
Although there is no A.I., it is possible to make some improvements. Privacy-focused training methods can be used, even though there is no effective A.I. Decentralised federated Learning is one such method. It has been proven to be comparable to centralised models in terms of quality and reliability.
For digital health adoption to be successful, hospitals will need to make sure that data is handled properly and transparently by their patients.
These five trends are a guideline for how the hospital will function in the future, but there are many other factors. These include specific design elements, the impact of tech giants, and the new role for healthcare professionals. These elements are crucial to the success of the hospital of tomorrow. We offer in-depth analysis and invite you to read our new e-book The Future Of Hospitals: The Hospitals Of The Future.
Written By Dr. Bertalan Mesko and Dr. Pranavsingh Dahunnoo
The Medical Futurist published the article 5 Trends that Will Decide The Hospital From The Future.
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By: Pranavsingh Dhunnoo
Title: 5 Trends That Will Determine The Hospital From The Future
Sourced From: medicalfuturist.com/5-trends-that-will-determine-the-hospital-from-the-future
Published Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2022 08:00:00 +0000
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