2024 healthcare trends: Digital twins are perhaps one of the most exciting technology applications, and it would not be wrong to predict that it will shine in 2024. So much so that a doctor can use a digital twin to simulate treatments for a patient and help make important decisions before physically performing treatment on the person.
Trends that will leave their mark on healthcare services in 2024
An older human population with increasing life expectancy, global economic uncertainty and crisis environment, emerging transformative technologies in healthcare applications; These are the main factors affecting healthcare services as we step into 2024. These 3 factors and lessons learned from the past force healthcare providers to undergo technological transformation.
Here are the medical technological developments that will leave their mark on 2024:
Personalized Treatments
Personalized medicine is a trend that will revolutionize healthcare in 2024. Personalized treatment approach refers to the creation of special treatment plans for patients adapted to patient characteristics, preferences and needs. A personalized approach to health care creates more successful treatment results, leads to more efficient use of medical resources, and plays an increasingly important role in solving the health problems of the future.
Now, the same treatment approach for every disease is starting to be replaced by a treatment approach suitable for each patient’s molecular and genetic characteristics. Artificial intelligence-supported systems can create individualized treatment plans by analyzing patients’ genetic, biochemical and clinical data, resulting in more effective and successful treatment.[1]
Generative Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
Artificial intelligence (AI) is more than just a digital transformation trend in healthcare: Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing medicine and transforming the healthcare industry. Artificial intelligence systems can detect signs of disease by examining patient medical data. In this way, doctors can identify the disease in its early stages and manage the treatment process more effectively. Generative AI helps alleviate administrative tasks that reduce healthcare worker burnout and negatively impact the quality of patient care.[2]
Virtual Health Assistants: Tell me your complaint and I will tell you what’s wrong!
Today, virtual health assistants supported by artificial intelligence are increasingly used in electronic health record systems to make appointments and make treatment plans.
Virtual assistants also support patients’ treatment processes by reminding them to take medication or exercise. There are even studies on people monitoring conversations to detect early signs of health problems such as depression.
In short, virtual assistants can help clinicians with advice on treatments, diagnoses and medications, as well as making a positive contribution to patients’ treatment processes by providing them with the information they need regarding their care.[3]
Digital Twins: The shining star of 2024
Digital twins are a very exciting work and it would not be wrong to predict that they will shine in 2024. A digital twin can simply be defined as a virtual model of a real-world system, object or process. In other words, it can be used to simulate anything from a single process to an entire hospital to understand how it works in different conditions.[4]
Use of Digital Twins in the healthcare sector:
In healthcare, Digital Twins are computer representations of a system, from patients to hospitals and everything in between, both physical assets and processes. Digital counterparts include electronic health records, disease registries, and omics data including proteomic, genomic, metabolomic, and bionic data, as well as demographic and lifestyle information for each person.
Advantages of Digital Twins:
The areas of use of digital twins in healthcare are quite wide. It can even create a digital model of the human body. However, here are some key benefits[5] associated with implementing digital twins in healthcare:
1- Advanced Patient Care
Using their digital twin, a doctor can simulate treatments for a patient and help make important decisions before physically performing treatment on the person. Such an approach aims to make procedures safer while raising the standard of care.
2- Predictive maintenance
Digital twins can be used to predict failure scenarios in the healthcare context and perform predictive maintenance of important medical devices. This will allow healthcare providers to continuously monitor device performance to predict malfunctions that might otherwise occur in critical medical business processes.
3- Increased Education and Training
Digital twins will become an important platform to enhance the education and training activities of medical and nursing students, as well as other healthcare professionals. It provides students with an interactive platform that helps them understand complex surgical processes and human body conditions.
4- Research and Development (R&D)
Digital twins will serve as an important tool during medical research. These virtual replicas serve as a platform to perform a range of research experiments and investigate the complexities surrounding genetic disorders. This could go a long way in transforming healthcare approaches and medical treatment procedures, especially in rare and complex cases.
5- Optimization of Health Systems
Digital twins help healthcare facilities identify operational inefficiencies and bottlenecks in their systems. With this proactive analysis, managers can maximize resources, thereby improving patient flow and service delivery.
Digital twins of human body organs are being developed
At this stage, digital twins of the human body’s organs have been developed to model the effects of changes in treatment, medication and lifestyle choices. Perhaps the most complex digital twin currently imaginable is that of the human brain, and researchers hope to complete its development by 2024.
Additionally, approximately 66% of global healthcare executives plan to increase their investments in healthcare robots within a three-year period. This belief in the ability of digital twins is a clear testament to the amazing benefits these advanced technologies bring to patient care and operational management.[6]
Telemedicine
Especially with the pandemic, monitoring patients remotely and providing patient care remotely has become an important issue. The life-facilitating aspect of these applications, tested during the pandemic, made people turn to this field. It is unlikely that in 2024, we will go beyond simple remote care delivery such as remote consultations and move towards a holistic approach to remote patient care and treatment. Virtual hospital wards, where multiple patients are monitored in their own homes and processes are managed from a center, are an important example of this trend that will be implemented in 2024.
Protective and Preventive Health Services
It is a known fact that preventing disease is better, cheaper and easier than treating it. With the contribution of artificial intelligence and wearable health technologies, 2024 will be a year in which significant developments are expected in protective and preventive health services.
3D Prints
The first 3D printed object used in the medical field was an eyewash container, and it has come a long way since then. Now 3D printed medical equipment can be made to perfectly match patients’ natural anatomy. It is obvious that 3D printing technology, which is frequently used in external prostheses, orthopedic implants and stents today, will play a more effective role in treatment processes.
Virtual Reality in Healthcare
The use of virtual reality (VR) in healthcare is rapidly expanding. Studies have shown that it is more effective than traditional pharmaceutical pain management, especially in helping patients manage long-term chronic pain; It shows that it causes fewer side effects, increases the quality of life of patients and reduces the length of hospital stay.
Virtual reality is increasingly used by surgeons. Another application area of virtual reality, which is increasingly used in the treatment of phobias in psychiatry, is wound care processes.
Elderly care
The population is aging all over the world, and this puts significant pressure on healthcare systems. We are moving towards a future where innovative solutions come to the fore that will enable the elderly to stay in their own homes for longer periods of time, instead of staying in hospitals, nursing homes and nursing homes. There is more focus on the development of new treatments, especially for diseases that occur in old age and put a burden on care systems such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and preventive care, virtual hospitals and health assistants, etc., which are also included in this article. 2024 will be a year when new trends increase their effectiveness in the field of elderly care.
Convergence of Mental and Physical Healthcare Delivery
For most of medical history, mental health care has been relatively isolated. However, today, service providers and society are increasingly recognizing the inherent links between physical and mental health and the need for a holistic approach; This situation, together with the increasing interest in mental health, also brings technology solutions in this field to the fore. Teletherapy platforms, applications for artificial intelligence-driven mental health assessments, and studies in the field of virtual reality are just a few examples of the reflections of these technological developments in the field of mental health.
Wearable Medical Devices
The accelerating effect of the pandemic on the digitalization of the healthcare sector is especially evident in wearable technology. Patients are increasingly focusing on prevention and care. That’s why healthcare companies continue to invest in wearable technology devices. These devices provide the opportunity to identify health risks or continuously monitor high-risk patients.
References:
- Goetz LH, Schork NJ. Personalized medicine: motivation, challenges, and progress. Fertil Steril. 2018 Jun;109(6):952-963. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2018.05.006. PMID: 29935653; PMCID: PMC6366451.
- Yasin Shokrollahi, Sahar Yarmohammadtoosky, Matthew M. Nikahd, Pengfei Dong, Xianqi Li, Linxia Gu. A Comprehensive Review of Generative AI in Healthcare. (1 Oct 2023). arXiv:2310.00795 doi:10.48550/arXiv.2310.00795
- Curtis RG, Bartel B, Ferguson T, Blake HT, Northcott C, Virgara R, Maher CA. Improving User Experience of Virtual Health Assistants: Scoping Review. J Med Internet Res. 2021 Dec 21;23(12):e31737. doi: 10.2196/31737. PMID: 34931997; PMCID: PMC8734926.
- Dileep Gupta, Digital Twins in Healthcare – A New Era of Innovation for Businesse. (November 6, 2023) Appinventiv
- Sun T, He X, Li Z. Digital twin in healthcare: Recent updates and challenges. Digit Health. 2023 Jan 3;9:20552076221149651. doi: 10.1177/20552076221149651. PMID: 36636729; PMCID: PMC9830576.
- Venkatesh, K.P., Raza, M.M. & Kvedar, J.C. Health digital twins as tools for precision medicine: Considerations for computation, implementation, and regulation. npj Digit. Med. 5, 150 (2022).