Technology-driven transformation in global healthcare demands that stakeholders identify influential technologies and re-strategise to ride the strongest growth currents. As healthcare moves to the anytime, anyplace, continuous and personalised care model, technological advances are unlocking values and previously inaccessible segments.
“Although these technologies are making waves within research, two aspects must be weighed to assess potential market impact,” notes Frost & Sullivan transformational health research analyst Siddharth Shah. “The first is the commercialisation and maturity timelines for these technologies. The second is aligning the technologies with Healthcare 2025 trends and themes in order to successfully leverage growth opportunities.”
Vision 2025 – Future of Healthcare is part of Frost & Sullivan’s Advanced Medical Technologies and identifies 18 technologies that will impact healthcare paradigms by 2025. Some technologies set to create billion-dollar opportunities include wearables, enhanced prosthetics, nanorobotics, electroceuticals, advanced materials, population health analytics, quantum computing, wellness gamification, regenerative medicine, and precision medicine.
To be profitable, companies must identify the technologies that will impact their business and invest accordingly. For instance:
* Artificial intelligence is set to speed up the analysis of large volumes of data to efficiency levels that exceed human capability.
* Brain-computer interfaces can connect a “wired” brain directly with an external device for “neural bypass,” which will help paralysed patients move or blind patients see.
* Digital avatars offer holographic projections of doctors to answer health queries, similar to voice assistants like Cortana and Siri.
* Medical tricorders can record health vitals and parameters to diagnose a range of health conditions without a physician.
Frost & Sullivan’s analysis offers timeframes for commercialisation and indicates when significant on-the-ground healthcare impact will be seen for each technology. Some of the frontrunners in the race for enabling healthcare technologies include IBM Watson Health with its AI for healthcare, Organovo for 3D bioprinting, DeepStream VR for its virtual reality applications, and QualComm with its $10-million tricorderX inducement prize contest to develop medical tricorders.
