IDC Health Insights, a firm that advises organizations on value-based healthcare and knowledge-based medicine, released its list of health IT predictions for 2018 in a report titled "Worldwide Health Industry 2018 Predictions."
Here are 10 trends IDC Insights say will take off next year.
1. By 2019, more than half of life science and healthcare companies will dedicate resources to support the use of real-world evidence across their organizations.
2. Digital mobile engagement will have increased 50 percent by 2019 among life science companies, patients and providers.
3. Hospital adoption rates of "internet of things" enabled devices for asset tracking and inventory management will double by 2020.
4. By the end of 2020, about 25 percent of the data used in medical care will be collected and shared by the patients themselves.
5. One in four hospitals with more than 200 beds will use robotics for time-consuming tasks to reduce labor and prevent errors by 2020.
6. Blockchain for operations management and patient identification will be deployed in nearly 20 percent of healthcare organizations by 2020.
7. By 2021, nearly 20 percent of healthcare organizations and 40 percent of life science organizations will have achieved 15 to 20 percent productivity gains with the help of cognitive and artificial intelligence technology.
8. Nearly 20 percent of payer office operations will shift their business process to a service contract by 2021 due to overwhelming data management requirements.
9. By 2021, the first $1 million class action lawsuit against a medical device manufacturer will be filed for negligence due to cyberattack that led to the death of at least 25 patients connected to a network while in the hospital.
10. Digital healthcare services will make up nearly 6 percent of global healthcare expenditures by 2021.