“Blockchain and big data can help streamline healthcare processes”

By Shajan George

Post pandemic many nations including India are looking forward to strengthening the healthcare sector in their regions. Now, more than ever technology and healthcare go hand-in-hand. Implementing electronic medical records (EMR), blockchain systems, artificial intelligence- (AI) driven natural language processing, augmented and virtual reality integration, telehealth/telemedicine, internet of medical things (IoMT), and 3D printing are just a few of the technology trends that are playing a major role in expanding the sector.

AR-VR integration, telemedicine, internet of medical things, and 3D printing are few of the technology trends that are expanding the healthcare sector.

But healthcare is not just about serving the patients. Research, pharmaceutical, analytics of health-related topics, and biotechnology are part of the healthcare ecosystem. Japan, for example, is investing more and more in robotics to take care of the increasing number of senior citizens in their country. This is also a current trend attracting investment and considered by the healthcare industry and tech moguls. Investment is also needed to make healthcare infrastructure safe in terms of patient room and treatment room cabling. Besides the need for reliable LAN products, the healthcare environment needs the ability to identify and separate different networks, antimicrobial treatment, and overvoltage protection.

Today, the industry can offer solutions for treatment and patient rooms to ensure that specific electromagnetic, galvanic separation, and hygiene requirements in these special environments are supported. These functionalities can directly help improve the care process, positively affecting the health of patients and staff.

Healthcare sector ills

Just like challenges in any vertical, even the healthcare sector has been challenged by many of the external factors in terms of technology. Security, data privacy and regulations, simple user experience, blind spots, keeping up with old technology, the non-availability of the right resources for data scientists, and data analytics engineers are all challenges that the healthcare industry is facing.

Lack of the right manpower often affects the capacity to face challenges. Security and data privacy are one of the supreme requirements of healthcare as the records of a patient and their health history is of utmost importance and recently cybersecurity breaches have put hospitals, their functioning, and patients’ privacy at threat. Medical technology is advancing by leaps and bounds. Yet one thing left in the dark ages is the user interface. These devices might change the world, but it won’t matter if they’re too difficult to use.

Various solutions can be implemented to help the healthcare vertical overcome the challenges it faces on a day-to-day basis, including the use of deep techs like AI in healthcare for cost-effective treatments and personalized decision-making. Clinical trials can be made easy with strong DC support. Blockchain and big data can be utilized to further consolidate and streamline healthcare processes.

Besides the need for reliable LAN products, the healthcare environment needs the ability to identify and separate different networks, antimicrobial treatment, and overvoltage protection.

Newer technologies with DCs and strong infrastructure as a backup, drug development, patient healthcare prediction, stronger research, healthcare trackers, wearable and sensors, nanotechnology, gene sequencing, recommending treatments and identifying high-risk patients, health chatbots are a few of the many healthcare opportunities that can be looked at. Smart building is another factor that can be considered, including data security. This is a priority in terms of securing the perimeter and building and applies to all levels of the IT infrastructure.

With AI, data analytics, and immense data being generated, the future of the healthcare industry is set to evolve on a gigantic scale. Real-time health prediction and analysis, 3D printing technology for a better understanding, smart infrastructure to enhance the performance of the unit and helps swifter performance which also leads o faster diagnosis. As the healthcare vertical sheds, the old skin of outdated technology and infrastructure, and embraces the newer technology there will be no stopping the advancement in this field which would eventually benefit us all.

George is Sr. Director Sales at Private Network, R&M India