6 Emerging Healthcare Technology Trends for 2024

The healthcare industry has undergone a rapid digital transformation over the past decade, with the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerating the need for change. These healthcare digital transformation trends are affected by many factors, such as an aging population that’s living longer, consumers expecting personalized care, and an ever-changing digital landscape.

As a leader in cutting-edge healthcare technology, Cox Prosight helps hospitals and healthcare facilities stay at the forefront of today’s trends in the healthcare industry. Read on to discover six current trends in healthcare technology.

1. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)/Real-Time Location System (RTLS)

Real-time location system technology has become an emerging trend in healthcare facilities’ infrastructure, with the RTLS in the healthcare market expected to grow by $3.27 billion between 2022 and 2027. 

This healthcare technology trend can be used by hospitals to track assets, improve staff safety, and enhance the patient experience. There are different types of RTLS technology, including:

• Wi-Fi based
• Infrared (IR)
• Ultra-wideband (UWB)
• Ultrasound identification
• Radio-frequency Identification (RFID)
• Bluetooth low energy (BLE)

While each type of RTLS technology has advantages and disadvantages, the value provided by BLE surpasses that of the others in nearly every category. Additionally, BLE is the most affordable option and the most effective form of RTLS technology currently on the market. Cox Prosight leverages BLE technology to help hospitals and healthcare facilities create robust RTLS systems.  

2. Healthcare Data Analytics

With new healthcare technology trends comes lots of big data to analyze. Hospitals need a way to make sense of their data to inform smarter decision-making — that’s where healthcare data analytics comes in. 

Now trending in the healthcare industry, data analytics is the process of collecting and analyzing raw data to make conclusions about information, find trends, and identify actionable insights. For example, hospitals may use RTLS technology to collect data on hand hygiene. Over time, hospitals can use data analytics to:

• Identify which (if any) parts of the hospital are struggling to meet compliance
• View and automate data for reporting

Cox Prosight helps healthcare facilities collect and analyze their RTLS data, whether it’s data from asset tracking, environmental monitoring, or inventory management. While data collection is essential to any modern facility, data analytics helps hospitals understand what their data is telling them so they can identify future trends for their healthcare facility.

3. Medical Inventory Forecasting

As seen with COVID-19, the demand for healthcare equipment commonly increases during the rise of infectious diseases. Being able to identify healthcare trends and forecast increases in demand enables healthcare facilities to plan and manage their resources effectively. 

Medical inventory forecasting is essential for modern healthcare facilities, but can be challenging. However, with the help of new technology, it can be simplified. 

By leveraging Cox Prosight technology, hospitals gain real-time inventory visibility, enabling them to forecast and plan for future demand. Forecasting better prepares healthcare facilities for increased hospitalizations, ensuring needed equipment such as beds and ventilators are available upon demand. 

4. Equipment Maintenance Tracking

Many hospitals face operational challenges involving medical equipment maintenance, including:

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• Unhygienic equipment: Staff rely on ready-to-use, clean equipment. However, poor maintenance tracking can result in unusable equipment. 
• Lack of asset visibility: Whether a piece of equipment needed unplanned maintenance or wasn’t returned to the correct place, incorrect or missing information on asset status can delay patient care. 
• Decreased asset performance: If equipment misses routine maintenance, its performance may gradually decline. 

However, using an RTLS technology solution such as Cox Prosight, healthcare facilities can easily track assets in real time. This technology trend in the healthcare industry allows hospitals to easily see when equipment needs to be maintained, review their equipment fleet, and know when it’s time to order new assets. Asset maintenance tracking is essential to lowering equipment costs and increasing equipment usage, helping save hospitals money. 

5. Digital Front Door

A digital front door is a technology strategy healthcare facilities are implementing to improve patient experiences. From scheduling appointments online to viewing health records from a phone, digital front door technology, “is really the future of care,” according to Keith Algozzine, CEO of UCM Digital Health. 

Cox Prosight helps hospitals develop digital front doors with three different strategies: pre-visit engagement, engagement during a visit, and post-visit engagement. Today’s patients demand digital experiences, and with Prosight, healthcare facilities can deliver a patient-friendly digital front-door experience with:

• Patient portals to help patients schedule appointments and pay bills
• Wayfinding technology to help guide visitors 
• Telemedicine integrations allow providers to engage with patients post-visit
• Online surveys collect patient feedback

6. Hospital Staff Safety Badges

Healthcare workers are five times as likely to experience workplace violence as other workers, and this unfortunate trend in the healthcare industry shows no sign of slowing. According to the National Nurses United April 2022 survey, 48% of hospital nurses reported an increase in workplace violence. 

Technology trends in healthcare are helping hospitals keep their nurses and staff safe with the rise in popularity of hospital staff safety badges. The Prosight Staff Safety solution offers a way for hospital staff to signal for help in duress situations. Using hospital badge technology, staff can access emergency help with just the touch of a button.

This technology is essential in fostering a safer workplace for healthcare workers and creating better experiences for hospital patients and visitors. 

Leverage Cox Prosight to Stay Ahead of Emerging & Future Trends in the Healthcare Industry 

New technologies continue to transform trends in the healthcare industry, creating new opportunities for innovation and improvement and paving the way for future trends in healthcare. 

A leader in cutting-edge solutions for hospitals and healthcare facilities, Cox Prosight remains at the forefront of technology trends in the healthcare industry, helping modernize operations to increase ROI, improve patient experiences, and create safer workplaces. 

To learn more about how Cox Prosight’s solutions can future-proof your hospital, please contact our team today.