What Will Change in 2023? Top 5 Health Trends
We have reached the point that healthcare futurist and best-selling author Peter Diamandis predicted more than five years ago. The author of “The Future Is Faster than You Think” foresaw artificial intelligence’s influence on health care. AI will help drive improved drug testing and outcomes, which reduces reliance on wet labs, and it will also influence personalized health care and assist in the development of wearables.
Other trends for 2023 include the emergence of remote health care and retail health care. As we did at the beginning of 2022, let’s preview what the new year has in store.
1. AI’s Growth — Predictive analysis is expected to be huge when it comes to clinical trials. Data generated from previous work can feed algorithms to help determine side effects and limit the impact on test subjects. Computer analysis has also been used in medical imagery to help identify early warning signs of disease on medical scans like x-rays or MRIs.
2. Personalized Medicine — Deconstruction of the genetic code has made it more feasible to create customized treatment for individuals. Diseases don’t affect everyone the same way so the treatments shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. AI and machine learning will have a huge role in this as more data is collected with each patient. The categorization of similarities and anomalies will result in better care across the board and a treatment plan that should generate better outcomes.
3. Remote Health Care — The pandemic taught us that it wasn’t necessary to go to the doctor’s office. We can get care over the airwaves or through our data streams. Telemedicine has proven to be extremely cost efficient. But take it further. Technology is allowing for remote surgery thanks to robotic technology. At one time the surgeon had to be in the room, even for robotic procedures. Now they can be on the other side of the world.
4. Retail Health Care — Drugstores are cutting out some of their retail space to add clinics. It’s an expansion of the pharmacy’s service that went from filling prescriptions and offering advice on over-the-counter medication, to delivering immunizations, checking blood pressure, and administering, viral tests. Now, services are expanded, but through actual on-site clinics. It adds accessibility and reduces the need for patients to have dedicated primary care physicians for routine items like immunizations or wellness checks.
5. Wearable Medical Devices — There is no reason for people to limit their health care information to their heart rate or the steps they take daily. Blood oxygen levels, ovulation, and electrocardiograms quickly followed. As more data is collected the opportunity to warn against strokes, heart attacks, seizures, and spikes in blood sugar are more than plausible. They become likely. The wellness aspects offered by these devices are then augmented by the control they give the wearer over their own health care information.