Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

The healthcare industry has long been a place where technological innovation is the key to improving results for patients. From the invention of the microscope 500 years ago to the creation of the wireless pacemaker 5 years ago, innovation and healthcare have long gone hand in hand.

The 21st century is no exception. Technological innovations are revolutionizing healthcare as we speak. Telemedicine, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality have been changing medicine in the last decade. And, as Time magazine recently noted on its “12 Innovations That Will Change Health Care and Medicine in the 2020s” list, innovation around stem cells, big data, and even drones will continue this trend in the next decade.

While many of these innovations are very well-known and have been widely touted as innovations to watch in the healthcare industries, there are many others that may be less familiar but no less important. Here we will discuss five underrated innovations in healthcare today. 

1. Blockchain 

When you hear the term blockchain, chances are that your mind immediately goes to the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Yes, blockchain is more widely known as the technology that powers digital currency, but it is an underrated healthcare technology as well.

Blockchain is perfect for cryptocurrency because it is incredibly secure, easy to make transfers with, and keeps precise records. These are three things that the healthcare industry, which creates and stores tons of sensitive data, needs in abundance.

With blockchain technology, the healthcare industry will be able to better protect sensitive financial and personal health data while also making it easily portable. In the same way that it is easy to transfer cryptocurrency with blockchain, a person’s medical records can easily and securely come along with them to a new doctor.

The doctor can be securely granted access to these records and no one else but the intended doctor would be able to access the records without the code (or key) provided by the patient. This may be the innovation that secures our sensitive healthcare data from hackers once and for all.

2. Data loggers

The healthcare field often requires specific environments for specific purposes, where physical conditions must be maintained with great precision. Areas where drugs are stored, procedures are done, or certain machinery operates must be held at precise temperature or humidity or pressure levels to ensure the safety, effectiveness and consistency of the healthcare-related  processes taking place in these environments.

To help monitor these areas, the healthcare industry has long relied on data loggers – electronic devices with sensors that monitor and record data like temperature – to help keep these precise conditions. In recent years, these devices have evolved and become more sophisticated and important for environmental monitoring. Companies like Dickson that provide data loggers have seen the tremendous evolution in the capabilities of the devices over time.

In 2020, data loggers today are internet-connected and wirelessly enabled as part of the Internet of Things (IoT). This allows these devices to monitor an environment with greater precision than ever. Importantly, these devices can now send their data to each other and other locations. This allows for remote environmental monitoring which has been a huge innovation.

Instead of having to be checked and tended to in-person as in the past, today’s data loggers allow for less labor-intensive and more cost-effective, real-time use. The entire system can now be monitored by a single person or small team of people who can be alerted to and instantly address issues from a central point. This is a huge innovation for environmental monitoring in healthcare.

3. Augmented Reality 

Virtual reality (VR) is a concept that most people are at least somewhat familiar with and it is already having a big effect on the healthcare industry, especially when it comes to training healthcare professionals. VR’s close cousin, augmented reality (AR), may be a bit more obscure but it is also an innovation with many healthcare applications.

Augmented reality is a technology that combines real images with virtual ones to make a single augmented visual. The most familiar example is the fad game from a few years ago, Pokémon GO, where players would use their phone’s camera to look for the video game characters in the real world.

There are many ways in which AR can benefit healthcare and healthcare processes. For example, a surgeon could point an AR-enabled device at a patient and see the patient with their X-ray overlaid on top. This technology could enable a surgeon to better visualize potential obstacles and irregularities as she plans surgery, leading to less error and greater efficiency. 

4. Software as a Medical Device 

There are many medical devices and all kinds of software that are changing healthcare technology, but when software is a medical device in and of itself, then you really have a game-changer. That is exactly what software as a medical device (SaMD) is doing.

As the name suggests, SaMD is software that works as a medical device on its own, without the help of any other medical device. It is usually run on a smart device or computer so that users can see the data it produces. SaMD is making healthcare more portable, quicker to adapt, and more accessible to the average person.

While there are many applications for this innovation in the healthcare profession, it is making the most noticeable difference to the average person in personal healthcare. You can find SaMD products in the form of apps on wearable devices, smartphones, and tablets. This software can do all sorts of things from calculating medication doses to alerting you while you sleep if your breathing is interrupted.

5. Immunotherapy

Innovative treatments in disease, especially cancer, has been an ongoing goal in the healthcare industry for decades. One recent innovation that seems very promising and is being studied in greater detail by both the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries is immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy — also called biologic therapy — is a newer way to treat cancer. Medications have been created to suppress or eradicate errant cancer cells by selectively and carefully triggering specific functions of a patient’s immune system, creating a more powerful natural response to disease. For some cancers, immunotherapies are no longer experimental–many first-line cancer treatments are biologic agents, with chemotherapy and its harsh side effects reserved for potential recurrences. 

The value of this type of treatment is that it uses the body’s own natural defenses and comes with fewer side-effects than drug therapy treatments. It also has the potential to eradicate a disease within a body long-term because it works with a pre-existing system of the human body. 

Conclusion

These five innovations in healthcare, while underrated and not as heralded as some of their buzzier counterparts, could be incredibly important to the future of healthcare. Whether they become the next earth-shattering breakthrough or just help the healthcare industry become a little better and safer for everyone remains to be seen but, rest assured, they will irrevocably change healthcare for the better in the 2020s.