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10 Healthcare Technology Predictions For 2021

By January 12, 2021June 3rd, 2021No Comments

First off, I want to thank all my family, friends, employees, customers and partners for their support in 2020, and I truly feel for those who experienced hardships during the pandemic. We are emerging through a trying period in our lives, but as a society we are stronger as we’ve demonstrated the sheer will to persevere and actually grow through difficult times. I am looking forward to a stronger 2021 filled with prosperity across the globe.

SpinSci faced its own challenges over the past nine months.  Much like any business, we knew we had to adapt to changes caused by the pandemic for the sake of our employees, partners and customers.  Business processes and company operations have been reinvented and adapted to support a virtual workforce.  A similar transformation has taken place in the healthcare arena where an industry traditionally built on in-person human interaction and physical touch has had to pivot to remote and contactless experiences.  What Benjamin Franklin said over 200 years ago rings true today, out of adversity comes opportunity.  So here at SpinSci we took the opportunity to reinvest and rebrand our portfolio and to create innovative solutions for Health Systems that align with the new paradigm of virtual care delivery.

As we chart out 2021, our mission at SpinSci is all about improving the quality of life for our customers, partners and our employees.  We accomplish this through digitization and empathy.  I know that seems a bit of a paradox but that’s what makes it a worthwhile challenge to conquer.

We as a company are passionate about enabling the digital front door by digitizing every touch point between the provider and the patient.  Empathy is even more paramount now as the line between work and home blurs.  We are laser focused on improving the work life balance of our own employees with proper digital tools, structured business processes and continuous talent grooming and empowerment.  This empathy extends beyond our employees to our entire ecosystem of channel partners, customers and suppliers.With that in mind, drum roll please…. allow me to take a crack at this and present my predictions for 2021….what we’re calling “the year of the BlackJack” 🙂

10.  Mobile Adoption:  Patients are already well acclimated to clinical apps such as Epic MyChart and other similar patient portals.   However, actual patient adoption of these apps remains at only 25-30%.  I anticipate seeing at least a two-fold increase in clinical app usage as patients continue to play a more active role in their care processes.
9.  Gadgets, gadgets and more gadgets:  As we start seeing more pervasive penetration of IOT based devices, we will see them play a more essential role in keeping patients connected to their physicians. We can expect advances in sensor technology, cloud computing and flexible membranes which will help expand activity tracking and connectivity. Expect this convergence of IOT sensors and digital healthcare to shift into hyperdrive in 2021.
8.  Transfer center:  Transfer centers are the Air Traffic Control hubs for Health Systems, yet transfer centers operate on inefficient legacy voice systems. I expect transfer center modernization with Contact Center technologies making deep inroads as Health Systems look to automate processes and take advantage of new communication and collaboration offerings.
7.  Process Automation:  The advent of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is nothing new for Health Systems and 50% of healthcare executives expect to invest in RPA in 2021. I expect to see continued investment in task-based automation and acceleration both via RPA and Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA). Look for Health Systems to optimize back-office operational efficiencies allowing them to effectively redeploy critical resources to front line activities.
6.  Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning:  Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are going to redefine how we deliver care to our patients.  New algorithms are being designed to mine healthcare records and big data at an unprecedented speed.  Google DeepMind’s analysis of molecular data led to outperformance in detecting breast cancer by an average of 11.5%!!  AI can automate image diagnosis, reduce errors, conduct robot assisted surgeries and provide virtual nursing assistance.
5.  Self-Service:  HIPAA compliant Chatbots and Natural Language Processing (NLP) will become the key enablers in driving self-service autonomous patient engagement.  Automation and intelligent routing will support an improved patient experience as patients will start owning more and more of their clinical interactions further driving digital adoption.
4.  Proactive engagement:  This is already top  of mind for all Health Systems and will  continue to take center stage for patients.   While patient proactive notifications are nothing  new, we will see Health Systems pushing to drive
  patient interactions based on real-time events  within their Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems.   Patients will have a choice of the communication
 channels through which they wish to be notified by their  healthcare provider on how to best manage their health — from  vaccine schedules and pharmacy notifications to simple wellness reminders.
3.  Patient Access Centers:  Empowering contact center users (for Nurse Triage, Pharmacy, Scheduling, Billing, Registration, etc.) to make informed decisions will become an investment strategy for Health Systems.  A 360º degree holistic view of patient data from the EHR and Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs) for clinicians will allow them to authenticate, triage and make more efficient clinical decisions driving speed to care.  Patient history, medications, vitals, schedules, billing….all in one place in agile and customizable dashboards.
2.  Application Integration:  Convergence of communication applications with EHRs has always been a bit of a challenge. With FHIR Release 4, and as EHRs continue to embrace open standards and shift away from deep integrations, new opportunities for innovation will present themselves.
1.  Virtual Waiting rooms:  Curbside check-in is now the norm across the industry, and Health Systems will have to offer new curb-side registration processes to maintain new social distancing protocols versus traditional physical waiting rooms. It will be critical to package a strong patient experience with these new processes to compensate for any perceived lack of physical connection.

by Rajit Kumar, CEO of SpinSci

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