The Future Of Healthcare in 2020 and Beyond is the gig questions. In August 2015, global communications company Polycom, Inc. sponsored a comprehensive survey that polled approximately 1,200 healthcare professionals.
This survey suggests that over the next five years, the global health and wellness industry will struggle to provide quality healthcare. The reason for this lies in growing concerns such as inadequate funding and a strain on the healthcare infrastructure, resulting in insufficient access to medical care.
Future Of Healthcare in 2020 and Beyond
The global director of Polycom, Ron Emerson, explained that rapid developments in technology such as Big Data, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) were promising numerous new opportunities for avoiding healthcare bottlenecks by 2025.
Emerson went on to point out that issues like rapidly aging societies, coupled with shortages in well-trained shortages, need a digital transformation to handle the burdens placed on the healthcare industry as a whole.
What Is the Future of Healthcare in 2020 and Later Years
Since the publishing of that survey, it has become more evident than ever that technology will be what saves the healthcare industry. The survey drew out a roadmap to how the health and wellness industry can best integrate game-changing technologically to hasten the development of telemedicine or telehealth applications, as well as to maximize its potential In this way; healthcare professionals are hoping to realize new standards of care delivery by the middle of the decade.
Despite possible difficulties for those working in the healthcare industry today, the survey identified senior technologists who are now taking a spot in boardrooms across the globe to ensure technology is integrated into the healthcare infrastructure in a timely fashion, as well as correctly.
These senior technologists are hoping to accomplish a complete digital transformation in less than five years that includes prevention and wellness rather than merely treatment.
Polycom surveyed healthcare professionals in occupations such as nurses, practitioners, administration, and upper management—showing consistency in all of their responses when it came to their collective opinion about the major inhibitors.
List of Challenges and Opportunites
An Aging Population
Respondents around the world all strongly felt that the aging population and the heavy demand they have already begun to put on the healthcare service poses one of the most significant problems for the industry heading into the middle of the decade. For many experts, this is one area that will require a lot of attention.
Lack of Government Support
Traditionally speaking, governmental agencies have been slow to take heed to warnings offered healthcare experts concerning impeeding harm. Nevertheless, many of the respondents seemed cautiously optimistic concerning a few regulations put in place in their region. They believed governments are on their way to amending previous policies that hampered innovations in the healthcare industry in the past.
Ease of Access
With much of the world’s population residing in secluded rural areas, many inhabitants find it difficult to access healthcare. If and when they do get access to healthcare, the services are of poor quality and limited by what their governments provide in the way of funding. Healthcare professionals are hoping that by 2025 basic care will become much more accessible to everyone, even those who lack the money to pay for it. Everyone should have access to quality medical care no matter the distance. This means experts are hoping to see advancements in transportation services as well.
Lack of Funding
Even in the United States, we’ve seen the cutting of government funding to those in need, including single mothers, children, and even military veterans for decades. This is not something new or partisan either; it is an issue spurred on by the lack of technology. Even in countries often touted as having some of the best medical services in the world, things aren’t much better. For example, the New Zealand Herald published an article revealing critical hospital infrastructure problems. Some of the problems include outdated buildings that a cramped, have leaking water pipes, old electrical wiring, among other things. In places such as Southeast Asia, Africa, Mexico, Central America, and South America—among only a few places—the state of the healthcare system is much, much worse.
Future Of Healthcare in 2020 and Beyond
However, as technology becomes cheaper and more readily available, there is no reason why anyone in the world should be without fair medical treatment, no matter what their financial situation is.
We have a lot to thank tech leaders and medical experts for these days. So much innovation and investment are being put forth to be sure that the world becomes a more healthy place for us, our children, and other future generations. Overall, healthcare professionals globally believed we are headed in the right direction.
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