Even just a casual glimpse at news in the healthcare sector these days will show off a host of new advancements in the sector, both from within and without. Government regulation is playing a steadily larger role in the field, and the increasing pace of technological development is also weighing in on an industry that some may have thought would never be touched by telecommunications. But new studies are emerging to support older ideas, and the theme seems to be the same: telecommunications is going to drive much of healthcare in the not too distant future.
More and more, we're seeing how telecommunications firms are looking to take advantage of healthcare as a way to augment the bottom line. Only a couple of weeks ago, we saw how BlackBerry was putting investment into NantHealth in a bid to get more of a presence in this field, and that serves as something of an indication on how well the overall field is doing. As put by Natasha Gulati, connected health senior industry analyst for Frost & Sullivan, “Communication service providers are opportunistic; they seek out products and services that are comparatively easier to monetize based on government priorities and reimbursement policies in a region.”
This quote is actually just part of the picture, as Frost & Sullivan is set to offer up a free webinar describing how telecommunications are set to be a greater part of the healthcare picture than ever, and potentially even change the way we look at the market.
It's actually not much of a stretch to suggest that telecommunications are going to be a much larger part of the healthcare market in the near future than ever before, because the impact that the healthcare market has had on telecommunications is already quite visible. As mentioned previously, we've already seen what BlackBerry is doing in the sector, and BlackBerry is hardly unique. It seems that healthcare is starting to reconsider many of its standard models, starting with the idea of the hospital. While a central facility where surgeries are carried out and where doctors are posted is a sound idea, the idea of keeping patients within this facility is starting to fade away. As the pace of connectivity grows, patients will be able to connect with a doctor almost instantly, from home, and with that connection comes a greatly reduced need for a bed at a hospital to accommodate a patient. Consider, too, how the elderly are finding value in simple devices that quickly connect patients to doctors, and by extension, are keeping said elderly independent and in well-loved homes longer. The increase of wearable technology is likewise helping to fuel these developments, providing more means to take necessary measurements to be transmitted back to hospitals. We have a variety of video on this and many other topics available at this link.
From both a hardware and a software perspective—both devices and connectivity measures—telecommunications are playing an ever-increasing role in healthcare as we know it today. The webinar from Frost & Sullivan is really only the start, and as we go along, we'll likely see a host of new methods opening up to better connect patients with doctors. In the process, much of the healthcare industry as we know it today is likely to change in a big way, and likely sooner than some may expect.
