Smart Hospitals Will Soon Be a Reality in the Healthcare Industry

With the global spend projected to rise and the healthcare costs spiraling out of control, affordable and sustainable healthcare delivery is what is being sought-after for the future generations.But for this, it is necessary to rethink the way healthcare services and delivery are provided and managed. In that direction, hospitals are envisioning digital technologies as a potential solution that would herald a new model of healthcare known as the ‘smart’ healthcare. As a result, smart hospitals would soon become a reality, offering seamless, patient-centric, outcomes-based healthcare at a relatively low cost, thus contributing to achieve optimal customer satisfaction and better revenue margins.

The healthcare industry that is growing by leaps and bounds in terms of technology and innovation is practically under constant pressures to improve its productivity and operational efficiency. With the technological revolution on the rise, the healthcare industry continues to automate, innovate, and escalate healthcare solutions making use of the unprecedented amount of data combined with cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT). As a result, innovative healthcare solutions are making strides in the sector, automating tasks with AI robots, and connecting physicians with patients through smart apps, thus, offering mass scale expert insights and analysis.

What are ‘Smart’ Hospitals?

Smart healthcare or smart hospitalis a technology and innovation-focused place where healthcare systems are integrated seamlessly across the continuum of care to offer enhanced efficiency. Smart healthcare realizes the current shift of focusfrom volume to value-based care that strives to deliver an improved patient experience and engagement within the healthcare system. In general, the smart hospital framework involves automation, analysis, and access of Big Data fed into analytics or ML softwareand integrated together to derive ‘smart’ insight about patients and healthcare trends.This insight is made accessible to both healthcare providers and patients alike to empower them in making critical decisions faster and with efficiency.

Smart hospitals, with the aid of a digitized network of interconnected assets, can optimize, redesign,and establish innovative clinical processes, management systems, and healthcare infrastructure. This kind of design provides a valuable service of insight, helping healthcare providers achieve better healthcare outcome, patientexperience, and operational efficiency. In short, smart healthcare is not about just making hospitals digital and paperless but making it truly ‘smart’ in the sense, possessing the ability to provide enhanced data, insight, and access.

At present, hospitals are implementing digital solutions and exploring options to bring about a complete alignment of their clinical processes with healthcare management systems as a way of moving forward steadily in their digitization journey of becoming smart hospitals.

The Role of Technology and Big Data

A ‘Smart Hospital’ literally relies on optimized and automated clinical and management processes, built on an IT environment of interconnected assets and smart devices like Wearables, and IoT. All the smart technology and smart devices are aimed to improve patient care procedures and introduce new capabilities into the healthcare system. With smart technology systems such as Wi-Fi, Active RFID, and Sensors, it is possible to improve the real-time sense and response capability in healthcare. The big data revolution happening today combines Wearables and IoT devices with cloud computing technology, data analytics, and AI to ensure that the healthcare infrastructure is made ‘smart’.

In the smart healthcare system, healthcare providers rethink ways to reduce healthcare costs, while simultaneously increasing the operational efficiency and patient outcome. Embracing digital technology and working in collaboration with healthcare system partners will help providers apply technical solutions in a best possible way and bring the necessary changes to the entire hospital system. For instance, machine learning when combined with information technology has the capability to optimize radiology procedures such thatthe machine algorithmsin ML replacemore than 80 percent of the activity.  Similarly, building automation systems and employing smart asset maintenance and healthcare management solutions along with improved internal logistics of medical devices, pharmaceutical supplies, and consumables inventory can help achieve operational efficiency. Moreover, such solutions not only reduce operational costs but also decreasethe need for capital expenditures by improving utilization rates.

Some of the other technological innovations that can actively contribute to the emergence of smart hospitals are Blockchain technology, a shared, immutable record data that facilitates secure data exchange, and increases organizational efficiencies; Bio-telemetry that collects data and analytics using sensors to remotely monitor the vital signs of patients; Big Data and genomics-based drug development and precision medicine; and Virtual rehabilitation through real-time sensor devices that aid in better clinical outcomes.

All the above possibilities in technology today have opened up a way for hospitals in their journey towards smart healthcare. As of today, hospitals are already incorporating smart technology and other AI and ML-based techniques into healthcare to some extent, but haven’t necessarily addressed all of the prerequisites of smart hospitals. Yet, as can be imagined, it is not so far to witness fully-digital ‘smart’ hospitalsbuilding a ‘smart’ network of solutions in near future, thanks to the emerging innovations and advancements in IoT and other connected ‘smart’ technologies.