Pressing Challenges in Healthcare for 2021

[Consagous Technologies]

For any telemedicine app development company, it is important to be aware of the challenges that might arise during their process of delivering healthcare solutions. Here are some of the challenges in healthcare this year.

The world was adopting a digital way of life at its own healthy pace, but then the coronavirus pandemic struck, and this adoption was taken forward with an alarming thrust. As far as the technologies are concerned, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) take the top accolades for bringing changes in multiple industries.

Out of all the industries, there were a lot of changes in the healthcare sector, bringing new opportunities as well as challenges for every kind of organization involved in healthcare. Other than technology, patient expectations have also taken a new raise, where solutions are now needed as soon as possible.

Telemedicine app development solutions have surely brought in the required pace and accuracy, but with every new opportunity, there are a large number of challenges that come to the front as well. This is because the scope of healthcare is no more limited to just treating patients through medical consultation or practice.

It’s become much more than that.

Here are some of the challenges that will confront the healthcare sector like never before in the year 2021-

1- Increased Financial Pressure

Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, the healthcare industry looked seemingly unaffected amidst all types of economic drawbacks. With COVID-19 restricting the usual mobility of people, hospital visits from patients have reduced dramatically.

As a result, the overall cash flows have taken a hit. The treatment guidelines are also witnessing frequent changes, where every added precaution or safety measure leads to an added cost, reducing margins and putting pressure on the finances of medical institutions.

Overcoming this strain will not be easy and with the global economy poised to take its own time in recovery, this will surely be a big challenge in 2021 for sure.

2- Cybersecurity

Data breaches and cyber-attacks are not new in the healthcare industry, but the COVID-19 pandemic has put patient data vulnerability in a whole new light.

Data breaches have only increased since the last few years-

    In September 2019 alone, about 6.79 billion records were breached.

    60-80% of data breaches do not even get reported.

    At $408 per medical record, data breaches in healthcare are the most costly data breaches.

    The healthcare sector puts a miserly 6% of its overall budget on cybersecurity.

The challenge of cybersecurity will continue for a considerable amount of time further on, as the service providers are still not properly armed to effectively take care of cyber threats. A breach does not only compromise confidential patient data but also makes a health provider liable for a huge penalty, for violating the regulatory safety measures.

3- Proper Data Management

All telemedicine app development solutions are making increased efforts to ensure proper data management, but it’s no small task by any means. Healthcare systems are increasingly reliant on data to stay operational for both doctors and patients.

Because technology is advancing at a rapid pace, the generation of patient data and its related analytics will rise proportionately as well. Managing this increased data will become more difficult as organizations will have to use technologies like Big Data to process these huge chunks of data.

Healthcare providers will have to overcome this hurdle of data management to deliver digital health products that add to the overall user convenience.

4- Invoices & Payment Processing

Ensuring a seamless payment process from patients is another big challenge that has the potential to make things difficult for the new and digital healthcare domain. Taking note of what the patients prefer to pay through and trying to incorporate into the healthcare solutions is easier said than done.

Setting up the payment and invoicing process is not only challenging but also pretty expensive for medical service providers as well. Setting up the infrastructure for the payment gateway and then taking care of the management costs of the involved technologies will be an interesting challenge this year.

The medical insurance guidelines have evolved dramatically over the last few years. Because an increased number of patients now have to pay for their bills, the demands and expectations increase as a result.

Delivering better customer experiences will be on the priority list for healthcare providers as competition will understandably increase in the time to come. This will make acquiring new customers and even retaining the existing ones something that will need a lot of tact.

While there will always be challenges, what can’t be denied is that the years ahead will make healthcare more accessible than ever before. Consagous Technologies is committed to design and deliver the most efficient telemedicine app development solutions, something which it has been doing for years now. 

 

5- Delivering Better Customer Experiences

 

The medical insurance guidelines have evolved dramatically over the last few years. Because an increased number of patients now have to pay for their bills, the demands and expectations increase as a result.

Delivering better customer experiences will be on the priority list for healthcare providers as competition will understandably increase in the time to come. This will make acquiring new customers and even retaining the existing ones something that will need a lot of tact.

While there will always be challenges, what can’t be denied is that the years ahead will make healthcare more accessible than ever before. Consagous Technologies is committed to design and deliver the most efficient telemedicine app development solutions, something which it has been doing for years now.

 

Original Source:

 

https://www.consagous.co/blog/pressing-challenges-in-healthcare-for-2021