Advancements in health sensory technology will pave the way for remote patient monitoring and telehealth to dominate the future of healthcare, according to former Apple CEO John Sculley, who shared his viewpoint in Fortune.
There are two specific trends that will drive a major shift in the healthcare sector over the course of the next decade: a decrease in the number of available hospital beds and an increase in healthcare super users, which is a small percent of the population that uses the more than half of all the money spent on healthcare across the country, Mr. Sculley wrote.
The rise in telehealth services will result from advanced sensors, which will allow virtual care to push beyond urgent care situations. With telehealth, providing care to chronically ill patients in their own homes "will become mainstream practice," according to Mr. Sculley. Additionally, remote monitoring capabilities will continue to flourish, which will lead to fewer patients being re-admitted back to the hospital after discharge.
As for tech giants like Apple, Google and Amazon, Mr. Sculley predicts Apple will continue to add sensor-based applications to its Apple Watch and may even eventually launch a subscription service that can virtually connect Apple Watch users to their physicians. Google could develop medical sensors that work with its artificial intelligence-powered voice assistant to create an automated patient caregiver for home-based patients; and Amazon could continue improving its Alexa voice assistant to provide chronic care to patients at home, Mr. Sculley wrote.