Health IT editor shares top trends to follow in 2023

Colin Hung

What well being IT tendencies must reporters search out for in 2023? I spoke with Colin Hung, chief marketing officer and editor of Healthcare IT Today, for insight.

This yr, glimpse for hospitals to roll out the pink carpet in efforts to woo sufferers back again into their physical areas, and a rightsizing of telehealth, Hung said. His responses might spur more tale ideas for journalists.

Tendencies to look at include:

Hospitals investing in patient-experiencing systems to get them in the doorway. Patients have not fully returned to their overall health treatment suppliers at pre-pandemic degrees for a assortment of causes which includes panic of catching COVID-19 and fiscal fears. But hospitals and overall health programs want individuals to come back again and will need the revenue, and individuals need treatment.

Hospitals are “putting a good deal a lot more energy into making it really, really easy for people today to occur again or make an appointment,” Hung said. This involves investing in systems that aid clients e book appointments based mostly on location and get a lot more appropriately matched with the style of provider they would like to see, in phrases of gender, ethnicity or other features.

Development in remote individual checking and medical center-at-house packages. It is safer for individuals to recuperate from illnesses or techniques at household than in the hospital, specifically with present-day staffing shortages, Hung said. But clients recovering at home do need to be monitored.

Numerous hospitals are teaming up with distant affected person monitoring distributors who not only source the technological innovation but the expert services that go along with it, Hung reported. Corporations assistance patients established up the technologies, hook up them to Wi-Fi and guarantee that ideal details calculated by the devices is despatched instantly to electronic health care documents.

Healthcare facility rooms that contains far more connected equipment. “Smart hospitals” loaded with engineering for affected person care and comfort, as I wrote about in a tale article past year, are part of a larger sized craze about the world-wide-web of medical factors, Hung explained. Affected individual rooms will have a lot more related units together with the Television set, mattress, infusion pump, IV pole, lights, thermostat and additional that can be controlled centrally at the nursing desk or with voice commands in the rooms. Most crucial will be products to monitor the affected individual, like bed sensors that will monitor if a affected person has gotten up or rotated, or if any pressure sores are producing. That information and facts will be fed to central units and digital health data. Also, appear for goods like wrist screens and wi-fi EKG monitors.

And hospitals are acknowledging that patients need to have a way to stay connected to their beloved types, by means of improved WIFI for private mobile telephones or movie systems, he explained.

Rightsizing of telehealth. Telehealth use has dropped off its peak, and even though the federal governing administration prolonged Medicare reimbursement of telehealth by the finish of 2023, some clients are keen to get back into doctors’ workplaces and some physicians want their individuals back again in person, Hung said.

“I’m not confident the virtual issue has genuinely labored out for each one style of treatment,” he explained. “We’ve in fact gotten smarter with the use of telehealth. Prior to it was the only alternate. Now we’re observing wherever telehealth truly is incorporating worth and producing a difference.” In other regions, usage is declining.

Doctors also have develop into accustomed to the technology these types of that if they are just looking at a client for a prescription renewal or checking them in the course of restoration after program medical procedures, they could nonetheless choose for telehealth.

Incorporation of artificial intelligence plans in workflows and administrative jobs. Workflow-connected AI is “definitely heading to see a major boom in 2023,” Hung explained. For case in point, an AI method for radiology could flag pictures that could include a tumor, so a radiologist’s overview of people scans gets prioritized.

“A ton of AI equipment that assistance health professionals reduce pointless actions in the workflow are likely to be very scorching, supplied the labor shortages that we’re encountering,” he mentioned. This consists of AI usage for spots like billing, statements and scheduling.

Having said that, AI at this level might not still be prepared for medical diagnostics, Hung cautioned: “I genuinely really do not assume we’ve crossed that bridge still where by we’re heading to make it possible for AI to make diagnoses for us, but some AI help is going to be Ok.”

Opportunity improve in electronic therapeutics. This is a “huge exploding field, particularly for behavioral wellbeing,” Hung stated of the systems, and therapeutic interventions prescribed by a health and fitness care service provider that use program, mobile apps or other technologies to enhance the treatment method of a sickness or situation.

Having said that, he cautioned, “There’s not adequate details for me to know, is this heading to be a factor for the future ten years? Or anything like telehealth, in which we know it works in specific zones. There is just so quite a few of them popping up correct now.” We will undoubtedly see development in 2023, but whether or not we see success stays to be seen, he explained.

Continuation of cybersecurity incidents. Unfortunately, 2023 is very likely to carry additional breaches for two explanations, Hung reported: Hospitals are tender targets, and often symbolize existence-and-demise scenarios. As a result, they are extra most likely to at minimum believe of spending a ransom. And thanks to information reports, “everyone out there knows that hospitals have not spent enough in this location,” he mentioned.

In 2023, wellness devices are probable to even more spend in cybersecurity, not just in earning absolutely sure clinical facilities have the ideal firewalls but also in processes to make sure the hottest safety patches are downloaded for units, sustaining stock of units, and making certain backup and recovery processes are in put.

Further sources

2023 Healthcare IT Predictions – a podcast episode where Hung and John Lynn, founder and main editor at Healthcare IT Today, talk about their predictions for this 12 months
2023 Overall health IT Predictions – a roundup of health IT predictions from Healthcare IT Now in areas these types of as telehealth, overall health fairness and protection and chance

Karen Blum is AHCJ’s main subject chief on overall health IT. An independent journalist in the Baltimore space, she has written wellness IT tales for publications such as Pharmacy Follow News, Clinical Oncology News, Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News, Basic Surgery Information and Infectious Illness Specific Edition.