Ambient Care
One of the most critical Gigatrends we cover in the book is that of Ambient Care, which is set to revolutionize healthcare by providing continuous, personalized care tailored to individual needs, regardless of location or the patient's ability to advocate for themselves.
This approach involves the use of digital personal health care advocates who constantly monitor vital signs, diet, biomarkers, and behaviors to detect any health issues.
The shift towards ambient care also encompasses the use of advanced technology for remote monitoring, diagnostics, and treatments, enabling a move away from inpatient hospital care to outpatient and in-home hospital care. This transformation aims to streamline the patient experience, reduce the cost of care, increase access to care, and improve the immediacy of care.
Healthcare professionals will be able to focus more on delivering care and healing, while administrative barriers and paperwork will be minimized. Overall, ambient care represents a fundamental shift from episodic sick care to ongoing health care, with the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life for individuals.
Here are five ways the Ambient Care Gigatrend is set to change healthcare:
Continuous and Comprehensive Understanding: Ambient care will provide a continuous and comprehensive understanding of each individual's healthcare needs, independent of location, provider, or the patient's self-advocacy abilities. This means that healthcare will be tailored to the specific needs of each person, with a focus on ongoing monitoring and maintenance of well-being.
Shift to Home-Based Healthcare: There will be a significant shift from inpatient hospital care to outpatient and in-home hospital care. This change will allow healthcare services to reach the patient, rather than the patient having to travel to receive care. This shift will redefine the delivery and consumption of healthcare, leading to more personalized and accessible care.
Integration of Digital Health Technology: The increasing sophistication and volume of diagnostic tools, therapies, pharmaceuticals, and digital healthcare technology will play a crucial role in ambient care. Wearable devices, behavioral tracking technology, and remote monitoring will become more prevalent, enabling real-time tracking of patient health and immediate alerts to medical professionals if issues arise.
Streamlined Patient Experience: The patient experience and journey will be streamlined, reducing administrative friction, paperwork, documentation, and the burden of denied claims and billing issues. This will lead to a more seamless and patient-centered healthcare system.
Improved Access, Cost, and Immediacy of Care: Ambient care aims to create continuity of care, reduce the cost of care, increase access to care, and improve the immediacy of care. Through the integration of digital health technologies and a shift towards home-based healthcare, healthcare systems will be able to provide more timely and cost-effective care to a larger population.
Find out more in Gigatrends: Six Forces that are Changing the Future for Billions