The life science industry is dynamically changing even as we speak.
With the inception of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, nanotech, wearables, robotics, and more, new opportunities are being discovered that are making HCPs and HCOs rethink conventional healthcare practices and processes.
Although, it was always evident that technology would catch up to the life science sector, enabling it to change for the greater good.
The adoption of technology was further fueled by the pandemic, where HCOs and HCPs realized the true potential of technologies and how they could take healthcare to the next level.
So today, we’re about to dive deep into the world of revolutionary technologies that life science organizations are adopting.
These technologies are giving HCOs a strategic edge while ensuring the creation of a next-generation healthcare system designed for precision, delivering a high-end experience, and providing immaculate healthcare services to patients.
Let’s get started.
Analysis of The Tech-Aided Paradigm Shift in The Life Science Industry
The past two years have been of utmost importance for the life science industry.
Uncertainty gave rise to the importance of preparing for the worst, resulting in the life sciences companies going through an unprecedented change collectively to navigate to the subsequent norm.
During the pandemic, HCPs and HCOs realized that technology adoption is perhaps the best way to aid the world.
However, the healthcare sector has always lagged a bit when it comes to adapting to the modern ways of conducting business – this time, healthcare industry leaders were adamant about engineering a better future for their industry and businesses.
Enter automation, competitive intelligence, data analytics, and robotics. The change in the life science industry came from the aspects mentioned above.
These powerful technological tools enabled companies to tackle complexities, and old-school processes, replace manual workflows, and emerge creatively with automation and intelligent solutions in action.
Several HCOs leverage blockchain technology to surpass conventional organizational boundaries.
Cloud-enabled data and digital transformation pushed R&D, business operations, efficiency, HCP engagement, performance, and countless other aspects of the healthcare sector to new heights.
Still, life sciences companies have a long way to go, and the new trends and technologies we’re about to discuss will spur transformation, reignite innovation, and breathe new life into the industry.
So, let’s get down to them.
1. Wearable Tech: Healthcare
Wearable technology is the talk of the town these days. With brands like Fitbit innovating the healthcare sector, it’s evident that we’ll see many more facilitating and advanced healthcare devices in the future.
Moreover, the viability of such a technology is also critical to determine, so in wearable technology’s case, the wearable market was valued at $115.8 billion in 2021. And this value is projected to rise to $380 billion by 2028.
The exponential growth of wearable tech is easily observable with the stats mentioned above.
In addition, the most known wearable technology currently producing highly accurate results are fitness trackers and smartwatches.
The various features of these wearables allow users, specifically patients, to track heartbeat, monitor blood pressure, align sleep patterns and even provide information regarding their mental condition.
But countless sources claim that only the heart rate, steps, and blood pressure measuring features of wearable technologies are efficient and accurate.
And this may be true because whenever a revolutionary technology is introduced, it significantly causes the market around it to change and adapt to the new norm.
We believe that these limitations will be removed in the future. But for now, wearables can only be trusted in the above-mentioned aspects.
2. Deployment of Nanobots
Nanotechnology was considered a myth not long ago, but thanks to the contributions of scientists and engineers, nanotechnology became a reality.
With the ability to automatically detect diseases by running in-depth human body scans, Nanotech enabled doctors to identify diseases early at an earlier stage so that medical attention can be provided to the patients before the condition becomes chronic.
Here’s how the technology works – drug-carrying nanoparticles are injected into the bloodstream, reaching infected cells or organs while avoiding healthy cells, tissues, and organs.
This ensures maximum effectiveness of the medicine and slows the growth of countless severe diseases, i.e., tumors.
In addition, the application of nanotechnology isn’t only limited to medication but also breaks into the dentistry domain.
More recent findings revealed that nanotechnology is used in dental pilling and enamel surface polishing and can also be used as an implant.
Nanoparticles are known to act as anti-microbial because of their exceptional quality of preventing bacterial growth. Furthermore, nanotechnology will only improve further and become mainstream in the future.
3. In-Depth Analysis of Patients
Patients with different diseases are to be treated differently to address their medical needs and condition.
Therefore, a personalized medical treatment experience designed to help patients with their medical condition is a practice that has recently gained momentum.
Now HCOs are not just taking medical histories to diagnose the root cause of a disease, but they’re interested in learning much more about the patient, i.e., patients’ personal information (family history, diet, lifestyle, etc.)
The goal is to understand the patient’s group based on their genetic makeup and prescribe medication accordingly.
This information would be critical in enabling HCPs, specifically physicians, to create personalized medical treatment plans for the patients.
The solution created by analyzing in-depth information acquired by the HCPs would help them determine the disease’s root cause.
Therefore, comprehensive research before prescribing medicine is much more viable and effective than simply asking for a patient’s history.
4. Accelerating Healing with Bioengineered
Millions of dollars are spent on medical research annually, and one specific study relates to understanding how living tissues work.
Finally, after years of research, scientists cracked the code by deciphering how skin tissues work. This remarkable discovery, when further iterated, enabled researchers to grow small patches of the heart muscle and blood vessels inside a laboratory.
Moreover, by using 3D printing techniques, simple structured components such as cartilage or bone were developed.
But since bioengineering is not yet capable of forming complex natural organs, its application in healthcare is not projected to be anytime soon.
But there’s still a lot of ongoing development being carried out by professionals in the bioengineering sector, and it’s just a matter of time when large-scale production of organic tissues made by bioengineering will be available.
5. Drug Delivery Device Aiding Medicine Intake
HCOs are designing drug delivery devices to enhance the effectiveness of medicine intake.
The ratio of chronic conditions like Cancer, Diabetes, and Arthritis is increasing dramatically as the population is aging.
Although in some instances, the diseases mentioned above and others like them are treatable but to further improve the chance of curing people suffering from such diseases and the convalescent process, pharma companies are working on drug delivery devices.
Currently, science has discovered drugs for several diseases, but their prescription and intake are something that science hasn’t discovered.
Therefore, researchers, scientists, and HCPs at UCLA are leading this innovative project to allow people to receive lower doses of high-powered drugs more frequently and efficiently.
6. Robots Leading Surgeries
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are the ones to thank for this remarkable invention: robots becoming surgeons.
We all know that quantum computers can process millions of calculations per second with 99.99% accuracy – similar types of machinery, when programmed to perform critical operations that are too dangerous for human surgeons to perform, significantly increase the chances of success.
Though the role of humans is inevitable because they’ll lead the entire operation, with extensive training (data feeding) by human hands, robots can finally perform surgeries with precision.
Robots are already being utilized by orthopedic surgeons, urologists, and even neurosurgeons.
With human-level dexterity, movements along multiple axes, and extreme precision – there’s no telling what this innovative creation would accomplish in the future.
Conclusion
That’s all for now. These are perhaps the most talked-about trends in the healthcare sector, and as the global market for life science grows, prominent technologies like these are projected to become well-entrenched in the industry.
Furthermore, as I said earlier, some of the technologies mentioned are being implemented in the life science sector, which means that they’ve already proven viable.
Therefore, their influence in the industry will only accelerate other technologies’ development and deployment process in the healthcare sector.
Some honourable technologies we haven’t mentioned here are biometrics, cloud-based services, data analytics, software for healthcare, IoT, augmented and virtual reality, and much more.
