Health sensory technology has paved the way for remote patient monitoring and telehealth to dominate the future of healthcare, according to the former Apple CEO John Sculley.
Mr. Sculley believes that there are two specific trends that will drive a shift in the healthcare sector in the next decade:
A decrease in the number of hospital beds available and an increase in healthcare super users, which is a miniscule percent of the population that uses more than half of all the money spent on healthcare across the country.
Rise in telehealth services will result from advanced sensors and this will allow virtual care to push beyond urgent care situations. Telehealth is making care accessible to chronically ill patients in the comfort of their homes and this will become a mainstream practice according to Mr. Sculley.
Additionally, remote monitoring capabilities will continue to flourish. This will lead to fewer patients being re-admitted back to the hospital after discharge.
For tech giants like Google, Apple and Amazon, Mr. Sculley predicts Apple will continue to add sensor-based applications to its Apple Watch. It may eventually launch a subscription service that can virtually connect Apple Watch users to their physicians.
Google could work more in the field of artificial intelligence. It could develop medical sensors that work with its artificial intelligence-powered voice assistant to create an automated patient caregiver for home-based patients.
Amazon, which has launched Alexa will further improve on it. It will continue improving its Alexa voice assistant to provide chronic care to patients at home, according to Mr. Sculley.