Additionally, the digital healthcare tools medical practitioners use grew from 2.2 in 2016 to 3.8 in 2022. So, what’s driving this increased adoption and usage?

Key Drivers in the Growth of Healthcare Industry Software

When any product category sees substantial application development, many factors drive it. At a high level, those include:

• Increased adoption of telehealth and telemedicine solutions
• A desire to use patient data to improve decision-making regarding treatments and care
• Trends relating to patients taking a more active role in their health and having access to their medical information through EHR/EMR applications
• The use of AI (artificial intelligence) to support diagnosis, treatments, and more
• Labour shortages, which has more healthcare entities requiring automation
• Integration of remote patient monitoring

For most areas of healthcare, there are multiple choices for software on the market. Unfortunately, not all these applications deliver the results the industry needs. Often, they do the opposite due to the design, applicability, or user experience. As a result, custom healthcare software is an option to meet the specific needs of an organisation.

When there’s growth in a market, it usually follows trends.

What Are the Current Healthcare Software Industry Trends?

The trends in the healthcare software industry align with the drivers referenced above. Let’s dive deeper into these trends and what they suggest for transforming the field.

IoT and Remote Patient Monitoring

IoT (Internet of Things) technology is becoming more critical in healthcare to monitor patients outside of traditional treatment settings. For those patients managing chronic conditions, data collected by IoT devices enable early intervention and better management of their illnesses.

Software to manage the collection, exchange, analysis, and security of this patient data is in high demand. The industry recognises the value of this information as a means to drive more personalised healthcare.

The transformation driven by this type of healthcare industry software is substantial, including:

1. Closing gaps in understanding a patient’s response to treatment to prevent adverse reactions
2. Reducing costs throughout the healthcare system by supporting medication adherence and avoiding readmissions
3. Improving the condition of those with chronic diseases, as demonstrated by research that found that diabetics using remote patient monitoring had better outcomes than those who did not

AI Software Applications Offer Automation

Another healthcare industry software trend is the use of AI applications to enable automation. Automation is an attractive feature for several reasons. It makes workflows smoother and requires less interaction with technology. These solutions allow users to be more productive, lessening the strains for understaffed organisations. It can also be applied to medical image analysis, accelerating diagnosis.

Healthcare software that uses AI transforms many areas of the ecosystem, benefiting users and patients. It allows clinicians to leverage technology to improve patient outcomes by decreasing the time-to-care interval, reducing medical errors, and broadening access to patient data.

Improvements in Patient Engagement

The healthcare industry has long encouraged patient engagement. When people take an active role in their health, their outcomes improve. However, this is an area of struggle in healthcare, as many patients have limited health literacy or lack engagement due to social determinants of health (SDOH).

The tide is shifting for some, with 61 per cent of people stating they wanted this to improve. Since most consumers have access to mobile devices and computers, it makes sense that technology can support this.

Patient engagement software mainly falls into the category of patient portals. These platforms enable access to medical information, offer a way to communicate with providers, send reminders, and allow people to learn about and participate in programs.

Patient engagement is good for all parties in the healthcare landscape. Research on the connection between patient engagement and improved outcomes confirmed the correlation. One example is a study that found that patient engagement improved the quality of care because patients were informed, which enhanced service delivery. The study also showed that 11 per cent of participants with the highest engagement levels had considerable improvements in anxiety.