7 Tech trends set to transform the UAE's healthcare sector in 2020
Good health is one of the greatest blessings.
I’m sure everyone would agree on this, yeah?
To keep this blessing growing there has been a lot of developments in the healthcare sector.
With the advent of technology, the healthcare industry has become one of the fastest growing sectors of the world. And health technologies are capturing the global market at a rapid pace.
Don’t believe this?
Here’re some facts to support the notion:
[Source: Statista.com]
Let’s have a closer look at the total global technology growth year wise beginning from 2010 to 2022:
[Source:statista]
During 2022, a growth rate of 5% is expected in the healthcare sector (globally). Medical technology is put to use for monitoring, diagnosis or treatment of medical conditions or diseases.
Well, this was the global data!
Now, let’s bump into the UAE’s health care sector.
Are you ready to roll?
Let’s begin:
As per a research conducted by Mena Research Partners (MRP), in the year 2017, healthcare sector of the United Arab Emirates poised to record strong growth of around 60% and witnessed a structural shift in the next five years, to AED 103 million by 2021.
The Arab country tends to accomplish a world-class and advanced healthcare system and appear amongst the leading nations globally in terms of healthcare quality, as per the UAE Vision 2021 National Agenda.
Let’s peek into some more data:
The United Arab Emirates accounts for 26% of the total healthcare expenditure by the GCC governments and is intensely promoting medical tourism.
This means the UAE is on the pulse of AI-aided healthcare. In fact, the government is planning to further improve the quality of the healthcare sector via automation.
They’ve outlined a strategy, which uses robotics and artificial intelligence to mainly automate the entire process, as well as to identify the leading public-private partnerships and contribute to heavy healthcare investments.
With this, we can say that the UAE’s healthcare sector is all set to undergo significant changes in the coming years.
Keeping this in mind, I’ve summed up the top 7 health technology trends to watch-out in 2020:
Trend 1 – Advances in the Healthcare Sector with Artificial Intelligence (AI):
“ The United Arab Emirates already leads in the best 20 countries in the world ”
Do you recall anything as exciting as AI right now? No.
With the rapid growth and really exciting opportunities around – it is the best time to make use of its core potential for healthcare marketing.
Certainly, AI is one of the budding and promising healthcare technology trends. The AI machines that can give you data on decision-making and process the information, just like a human being.
AI tech has aided in the accuracy and rapidity of a diagnosis. Machine-learning algorithms are put to use for safer exploring biological and chemical interaction in the process of drug recovery.
AI engines aid in reducing and mitigating the risk of avertible medical situations in 3 critical ways:
- Identifying people at high risk – Identifying individuals in the need for any medical intervention and activate medical staff alerts to craft a custom care plan.
- Automating reminders – This aid the patients to take medicines within a certain timeframe.
- Delivering personalized dosage recommendations – Depending on the unique body chemistry and related environmental factors of each patient, AI aids in delivering personalized dosage recommendations.
Did you know?
As per Alpen Capital, the healthcare market in the UAE is likely to grow 12.7%, to almost AED 71.56 billion by 2020. The United Arab Emirates already leads in the best 20 countries in the world with AED 4400 per capita expenditure on healthcare.
So, what’s the bottom line?
It’s quite simple – keep Artificial Intelligence on radar and make use of the concept as one of the key health technologies for marketing in 2020.
Trend 2 – Advances in the Healthcare Sector with Telemedicine:
Telemedicine evolution is one of the biggest sources of fast and rapid changes in the UAE healthcare industry. By expanding the reach of the UAE physicians, this health technology would aid in relieving the shortage of quality healthcare professionals, along with reduced costs and give patients wider and greater access to specialist and general care via different digital platforms.
Key elements relevant to this technology –
- The purpose of telemedicine is to offer clinical support
- Telemedicine intends to overcome geographical obstacles – it connects the users who’re not in the same physical location.
- Use of and involvement of different types of ICT
- The main objective is to enhance health outcomes.
At present, the global adoption of this health technology is growing faster, with the market projected to reach USD 48.9 billion by the end of 2021. Telemedicine is, at present, implemented in the UAE, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Bottom line – telemedicine is a more convenient and accessible patient care system. It can even lower healthcare costs.
Trend 3 – Advances in the Healthcare Sector with Predictive Analysis:
Well, the adoption of healthcare predictive analysis was given many pitfalls!
The question is: Where do you get started?
The key point, to begin with, is to set up basic data and analytic infrastructure upon which you wish to build it.
Well, you can begin with the three fundamental steps of predictive modeling –
[Source: Health Catalyst]
What you have to do is:
- First, define the problem carefully, gather the basic data necessary, and computer algorithm approaches.
- Second, refine the process by choosing one of the best models and testing with a different set of data to validate the approach.
- Third, run the model in the real world.
There are a lot of options to choose from when it comes to developing a predictive algorithm or stratifying risks of patients. Doesn’t it seem a daunting challenge to healthcare professional tasked with sorting through the marketing noise and all the buzzwords?
Well, here’re four key lessons you can learn from adopting predictive analytics in healthcare –
- Do not confuse more data with more insights
- Do not confuse this insight with values
- Do not overestimate the proficiency of interpreting data
- Do not underestimate the implementation challenge
Trend 4 – Advances in Healthcare Sector with Business Intelligence:
This won’t be shocking to say spending on analytics software and business intelligence in the UAE reached to USD 42.24 million last year. This reflects a strong on-going growth of 7.7%. This data was provided in a published report from the International Data Corporation (IDC).
The UAE Business Intelligence and Analytics Software Market 2018-2022 Forecast and Trends by IDC tipped that the nation’s BI and analytics market-place will expand at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 5.3% during the 2018-2022 period.
Looking at this, the UAE healthcare industry can make the best use of BI and get the insights needed to increase revenue, reduce costs, and enhance patient’s safety.
Moreover, you can implement BI as it boosts visibility into the financial operations of a hospital, identifies both underused and highly profitable services, generates a compliance report, and tracks down the cash flow.
Bottom line – Business intelligence not only keeps reduces costs, but also provides an immense amount of data to help in the improvement of patient outcomes.
Trend 5 – Advances in Healthcare sector with the Internet of Medical Things:
Internet of Things in the Healthcare sector referred to as the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has more benefits and advantages than you can imagine. The application of IoMT in healthcare can enhance the way things work in the medical world.
From virtual medical assistance to enhanced machine control, application of IoT is the future. This health technology can save patients’ lives with a faster diagnosis of the ailment along with finding the ideal cure for it.
Where does IoT fit in healthcare?
[Source: Appinventiv]
IoMT has massive potential in the healthcare industry and developments are expected throughout this year and the coming year. As with big data, there has been a prediction by the analysts, this health technology trend is continuing to grow at a fast pace and might reach a value of USD 158 Billion by 2022.
Still wondering what’s the future scope of IoMT?
Well, see this:
[Source: Appinventiv]
Trend 6 – Advances in the Healthcare Sector with Wearable Technology:
The wearable market in the UAE is growing significantly over the past few years, coordinating with Artificial Intelligence to track down non-communicable diseases and other important signs. The data accumulated by the wearable device is very personal and includes health data such as sleep-related data, activity statistics, heart rate, calories burned, and location data.
Wearable devices are already popular not just in the UAE but the global market. Here’s an image depicting wearable ownership by Sex/gender:
[Source: Ipsos]
Trend 7 – Advances in Healthcare with Cloud Technology:
Well, we all know cloud technology has already become an integral part of our lives, isn’t it?
It offers accessibility and storage with just one click of a button. Many of the healthcare based organizations rely on cloud technology to store data. This has changed the healthcare system and informatics.
Here, have a look at the global cloud computing market:
Cloud technology is not only used in the US and European countries but this technology has been adopted by various healthcare institutes in the UAE.
Now that we’ve read some of the best-known health technologies to watch out in 2020 in the United Arab Emirates, let’s see how the UAE is leading the way with AI:
“Emirati nation is now ranking as the first among the Arab nations”
Did you know the Emirati nation is now ranking as the first among the Arab nations when it comes to adoption of AI in all aspects of life?
Well, this shouldn’t be shocking!
In the last few years, the Emirati officials are focusing on the introduction of AI technologies to their nation.
Let’s see how well they’re doing this:
No. 1 – The Country has a fully-developed Artificial Intelligence Technology:
Last year, the United Arab Emirate Cabinet officially approved a ruthless strategy that intended to aid place the country at the vanguard of the global efforts to foster AI.
This strategy comprised of 8 objectives in total including reaffirmation of the position of the UAE as an international AI hub that employs AI in training and recruiting people to work in areas that are technology driven.
Also, this plan is the first of its kind across the world covering the application and development of advanced technologies in 9 sectors namely health, traffic, environment, education, technology, water, renewable energy, space, and transport.
No. 2 – The Country has a Ministry of Artificial Intelligence:
Yes, you read it right, the UAE has a dedicated Ministry of AI. This ministry was established in 2017 with the key aim to invest in AI tools and advanced technologies that are being implemented in all areas of work, and improve the overall performance of the government.
The AI Ministry of the country is also working with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Ministry of Education to include artificial intelligence as a chunk of the national curriculum, training and preparing people for jobs in the near future.
No. 3 – AI Campaign launched by the UAE:
Last year, an initiative called ‘Think AI’ was announced by the Ministry of AI.
This campaign intended to accelerate the implementation of AI and its uses in different key strategic areas in the UAE. A series of workshops, panel discussions, roundtables were also hosted by the country in this regard.
No. 4 – AI Start-ups get the UAE support:
Young millennials running their start-ups are getting support from the UAE. Through this, they find an affirmative environment for growth across the country.
There are around 29 registered Artificial Intelligence start-ups in Dubai alone and this city caters to their needs via tech programs and innovative initiatives.
No. 5 – It intends to rely on AI for their Economy in the Future:
As per Government Artificial Intelligence Readiness Index 2019, the United Arab Emirates is ranking on top in the Middle East in embracing AI technologies.
This field buckles down in contributing the most sum of money to the UAE and is projected to contribute nearly 14% of the GDP of the country in 2030 that is equal to USD 96 Billion (353 billion dirhams).
The yearly growth in the contribution of AI will be around 33.5% in the UAE between the year 2018 and 2030.
2020 and Beyond!
Over 2020, you’ll likely to see the top 7 health technologies working together to aid make health services more patient-centered and more efficient in the UAE.
Overall, patients would be able to take advantage of more proactive and better healthcare. As said by Monica Crowley, ‘Healthcare is the cornerstone of the socialist state. It is the crown jewel of the welfare state.’ So, with the implementation of these technology trends, the UAE will set the crown jewel of the welfare state.
Stay fit, stay healthy!
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4ygood one..
Analytics and visualization , Enthusiastic learner in financial markets. Working in Healthcare data analytics .
4yInsightful!