Trends that will shape technological healthcare strategies

What technological trends can we expect to change our medical industry in the future?

In a guest post written by Sean Mehra for VentureBeat, the health entrepreneur lists seven predictions which could innovate and improve the medical field.

We began medicine in an apprenticeship model where knowledge was kept tightly locked away in the field, but with the expansion of technology, doctors' wisdom could be made accessible to all. Mehra believes that as more health-related information is published, the Internet will prove to be the key for medical awareness.

The health professional also believes that transparency will increase and doctors will one day be rated by their peers based on competence levels. One day, consumers may be able to access scores that capture a doctor’s professional reputation as determined by other doctors, says Mehra.

A third expected trend is that of consolidated patient information. The increasing prevalence of electronic health records may prompt the establishment of standards that makes access and organization more efficient -- which in turn will facilitate the integration of new technologies into healthcare.

Mehra also believes that technology will be used to cope with ever-increasing demand and to triage health queries and manage patients based on "urgency, severity and capacity." Technology will provide a "command center" which increases each doctor's capability of treating more patients without compromising quality of care.

In addition, our medical knowledge will advance more rapidly thanks to large-scale knowledge sharing across doctors and patients, otherwise known as "Big Data."

The sixth trend meant to alter our healthcare is the chance to foster a stronger culture of care in a fast-paced world. The average doctor only spends seven minutes with each patient in the U.S., but technology may improve medical knowledge and give staff feedback on their bedside manners.

The seventh technological trend is that of "unprecedented market caps." In other words, technological research and innovation is meant to foster the growth of medical ventures which will create new jobs, markets, and market values in the medical industry.

Read More: VentureBeat

Image credit: Flickr

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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com