5 Current Trends in Healthcare

Cyn Meyer
Tincture
Published in
3 min readFeb 8, 2018

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As we wait to see what the coming year will bring, now is a great time to look at what is currently going on in the world of healthcare. Many of the trends that we see today may be predictors of what is coming in the near future. Can you guess what will be next?

Here are five current trends in healthcare that are shaping the industry:

1. Getting social

Did you ever think you’d live to see healthcare leverage the power of social media?

It’s true that this industry lags way behind others on this front, but it is catching up and seeing some major advantages. Not only are healthcare providers and brands becoming more active on social channels, with 60% of doctors reporting that social media helps improve their quality of care, but organizations have also begun using tools to reach out to the community.

Small things can have a big impact on overall health, so if organizations can reach people at their level to ensure they’re taking medications correctly and eating healthy diets, everyone wins.

2. Putting patients first

Remember the old days when you had to wait an hour before the doctor would see you? You’d show up for your 12 o’clock appointment 10 minutes early and end up waiting until 12:45 before they even put you in a room. Maybe it didn’t always happen, but it used to be more the norm than it is today.

Today, healthcare is more consumer-oriented than ever before. Patients can compare doctors and hospitals as easily as they can browse through restaurants on Yelp. This trend has caused everyone in the industry to up their game.

3. Digitalization of healthcare

In this industry, we’ve been talking about a digital transformation for quite some time. It’s finally coming to fruition, and we only expect that it will get better.

New technologies, such as patient-focused Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions have helped improve patient satisfaction and the overall level of care. This data aggregation may also help organizations cut costs by identifying and treating patients’ health issues sooner. For example, real-time data analytics can give doctors a snapshot of a patient’s health that can lead to early intervention instead of advanced disease treatment.

4. Telemedicine

Telemedicine is another area of growth that we’ve been buzzing about around the water coolers for ages, but it has seen some amazing growth in the past couple of years. In 2017, we saw large healthcare organizations start using telemedicine to help them expand.

In the past, organizations most often used telemedicine for pilot projects, but we’re beginning to see it integrated into regular practice. Hospitals like Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, Arizona have integrated telemedicine to treat patients in its rural areas. Implementations like these are exciting for everyone in the healthcare industry and patients alike.

5. Addiction treatment

With more than 90 Americans overdosing daily, we cannot fully address the state of healthcare without mentioning addiction. Although funding is still somewhat uncertain, we can be sure that addiction treatment will continue to be a large focus in the healthcare industry. Family practitioners today are more educated on the signs and symptoms of addiction, and prescriptions for addictive drugs are slowly beginning to decline.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a problem we’ll see go away soon, but we can only hope to see some relief for this nationwide crisis.

The healthcare industry is changing to become more social and patient-driven, and it will be exciting to see what new trends emerge in 2018 and beyond.

This article was originally posted on Jan 29, 2018 at WEGO Health and authored by Rachel O’Conner.

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