What Does the Fourth Industrial Revolution Mean for Healthcare?

Written by: Eric Sleeth

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will have massive effects on healthcare all over the world. Significant advancements in technologyand biology will change the healthcare system in terms of the ability to manage health issues, how quickly care is delivered, patient roles, and the relationship between stake holders and health care providers.

How the Fourth Industrial Revolution Will Benefit Healthcare

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will change healthcare as we know it. As technology advances, it will enable greater medical breakthroughs and the faster development of innovative treatments and medications.

The digitization of medical records and the development of biometric technology, among others, will not only result in better and more effective medicines but will also enable these medicines to get to patients faster.

Advancements in biology, life sciences, and technology will make it easier for doctors to manage chronic health issues. Thus, physicians will be able to diagnose conditions faster, develop and implement personalized treatments, and even monitor their patients remotely in real time.

As connectivity improves and access to information becomes easier, patients will become more active in their own healthcare. Thus, as patients learn more about their personal situation, they will want to be part of the decision when it comes to how they will be treated.

More importantly, patients will have a more accurate picture of their personal situation as they will be in contact with their doctor, who will provide personalized information due to real-time monitoring. As a result, WebMD will no longer be the primary care physician for many. Patients will also be less likely to “develop” exotic health conditions after attempting to self-diagnose.

Data collection and analysis will lead to incredible progress. For example, we are able to collect more data on the brain than ever. The more data we have, the better able we will be to innovate across the board .

More interestingly, data from different sectors in the healthcare system will converge and can be used to create cross-sector innovations.

Medical research will also experience incredible advancement due to all this new data. Collaboration is becoming the name of the game. This, along with the ability to collect and analyze huge quantities of data, means that medical research will advance at a much faster rate than before.

"Patients will have a more accurate picture of their personal situation as they will be in contact with their doctor, who will provide personalized information due to real-time monitoring."

For example, we are on the threshold of making breakthroughs related to the human genome. More relevant data and increased collaboration could lead to innovations that would allow doctors to predict a medical issue before it occurs.

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New technology will also make it easier to monitor patients, but also to apply the personalized treatment. For example, biometric devices could be developed to scan patients between consultations so that illnesses can be caught and treated early.

Most importantly, as technology advances, more people will have access to top quality healthcare at a lower price. It will also mean a healthier population overall, which means costs will invariably go down even further. After all, when you can predict an illness or diagnose it much earlier, expenditure on medical care will decline significantly for that person, leading to overall lower costs and greater access for everyone.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will benefit all sectors and industries, but it will have a massive impact on healthcare. Medical advancements will come faster, better and more effective medication will make it to patients more quickly, and world-class healthcare will eventually be available to everyone.

This article was originally posted on Veriday’s company website . Veriday is a software company focused on digital engagement.