The future of healthcare is changing dramatically with medical technology advances starting to accelerate. India spent 2.5 percent of its GDP on healthcare in 2017. Let’s take a look at some of the healthcare technology advances in 2017.
Augmented reality made its way to healthcare education. With robust 3D training tools offered by companies like 3D4Medical and another tool called Echopixel, technology became more accessible to the doctors. While the tool offered by 3D4Medical helps doctors learn about Anatomy without having to cut open a cadaver, Echopixel takes data from CT and MRI scans and transforms it into 3-D holographic images to interact with patient tissues and organs as if they were real physical objects.
Clinical patient data access became easier in the past year with the introduction of platforms that helps providers and staff route patients to the most appropriate high-quality clinician in a community using SmartMATCH Technology from ReferralMD. Till date, healthcare still communicates with paper. Less than 10 percent of hospitals are able to trade records entirely through their digital systems.
Antiaging might not be restricted to beauty creams anymore. Companies like Alkahest are researching on key proteins in plasma that rejuvenate or age human tissues to develop an anti-aging product. A Spanish blood products firm, Grifols, pledged $37.5m for a 45 percent stake in Alkahest. The company will bankroll more research in exchange for rights to Alkahest’s first products with another $12.5 million.
2018 will see more such advances in healthcare technology. Watch this space for more updates.
