The healthcare landscape is shifting faster than ever before. The future of healthcare technology and delivery is, and will be, defined by innovations that put people front and center—an idea propelled by advances in technology, shifts in patient expectations, and demands to improve access and efficiency of care. In this post we will discuss the intersection of trends in AI in healthcare in addition to new health apps, all of which can facilitate patient-centered care, and how they are changing where and how we receive health treatment, monitor health, and engage in our health.
What Is Patient-Centered Care, and Why It’s Central
Patient-centered care (or patient-led care) refers to designing healthcare services around the needs, preferences, and values of an individual person—not simply utilizing a protocol or what the provider prefers. It is also about empathy, communication, shared decision-making, and personalization. In other words, it is about changing the balance: patients are no longer just passive recipients, but become active partners.
Key Trends in AI in Healthcare
Some key trends in the AI in healthcare space that will change the future are:
1. Diagnostic Precision and Early Detection
Artificial Intelligence algorithms are constantly improving at analyzing medical imaging (MRIs, X-rays) and other data, with the goal of identifying disease earlier and more accurately; this will improve detection of cancers, heart disease, neurological disorders, etc. at a time when these diseases can benefit from earlier interventions.
2. Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Wearables
The use of sensors, IoT devices, wearables, and AI in remote monitoring systems allows continuous data capture related to health (vitals, activity, sleep, etc.), the detection of when things may be "off," and alerts to the patient and the provider. This provides an effective way of managing chronic disease outside the hospital setting that reduces readmission and provides better outcomes.
3. Generative AI and Virtual Assistants
Generative AI (e.g., tools to summarize medical notes, draft care plans, even chatbots) is being used more frequently to reduce clinician burden, streamline administrative tasks, and better engage patients.
4. Individualized and Targeted Treatment
AI's ability to analyze datasets with multiple layers (genomics . lifestyle, environment) will allow for more personalized care plans. Patients will receive therapies more appropriate for their individual biology and situation, thereby increasing the effectiveness of treatment and lessening side effects.
5. Digital Solutions and Applications Assisting Self-Management
There is a wealth of health applications that will help people with symptom tracking, care scheduling, symptom progression tracking, reminders and tele-consults. One of the most notable benefits of these tools is that patients can now take a more active role in their own health and well-being instead of relying on their healthcare practitioner.
How Healthcare Apps Are Enhancing Patient-Centered Technology
Since apps are with the user all the time, it makes them ideal for patient-centered care. They provide user-friendly, flexible, and continuous access. Some of the ways mobile apps and digital solutions are making a difference:
- Symptom tracking, behavior changes, and alerts: Once people can record daily health indicators such as pain, mood and vital signs, the App aided by AI, can add value by recognizing patterns and increasing alerts of risk (e.g., the risk of a flare in chronic disease).
- Virtual care and telemedicine: Options for video visits and remote consultation, such as mental health support via app, reduce travel and waiting time and expand access to care for people living in remote areas or in under-resourced regions.
- Clinical trial matching and education: Some apps assist patients to understand treatment options and learn more about clinical trials and analyzing risk vs benefit, which can help them with decision making.
- Remote wound care and chronic condition management: For instance, applications are being created to help patients take images of wounds from home, complete simple health questionnaires, and send the data to clinicians who are managing the healing remotely - along with AI helping aid the wound-segmenting to assess improvements.
Challenges to Address
Every change comes with obstacles. For these technologies to deliver on their promise:
- The right assignment of data privacy & specificity: Health data is personal and sensitive. No app or AI tool can use health data without ensuring that the data will be managed with privacy and security, in addition to determining whether patient consent, transparency, and compliance with the laws can be established.
- Fairness, Bias & Trust: Fairness based on bias is an issue for AI if the systems were trained on limited datasets. A specific, very important goal must to be collect data that captures diversity in the population, make equity of data validation to oversee other populations, and create models that people can use and trust.
- Interoperability & integration into workflow: The tool must connect with existing health records, and seamlessly work with provider workflows (and if it doesn't, it is hard to adopt and integrate into practice).
- Accessibility & Digital Literacy: Patient-centered technology must consider people with limited access to technology (designed for people with limited access). Due consideration must also be good design- the user experience matters to some degree.
- Regulatory & Ethical oversight: As we move into tools that not only make recommendations (or semi-autonomous decisions- however it would be classified), regulated practices must work together to keep pace in ways can ensure responsibility, accountability, and safety.
Vision: What the Future Could Look Like
Bringing all of these together, here's what the future of healthcare could look like over the next 5-10 years:
- A person with a chronic disease will use an app that connects to a wearable to monitor their vital signs, logs symptoms, checks in with an AI system, and minor alerts will be sent to his/her care team automatically while major deviations initiate immediate virtual care.
- Physicians will spend less time doing paperwork because AI scribe-assistants will transcribe their notes and summarize visits and important information, which will allow physicians to spend more time connecting with patients and facilitating diagnosis, treatment and planning.
- Everyone will have access to their own personalized health information, predictive risk scores, personalized preventive care, and can choose consumables (apps, tools) that align with their own lifestyles, values, and preferences.
- For many conditions, distributed care will become the standard of care; virtual check-ups and remote monitoring, telehealth tools and AI-assisted diagnostics & triage will be available for patients who live in rural/frontier regions or underserved communities.
Conclusion
The convergence of AI, apps, and patient-centered care is not just a fad; it's a component that will not go away but is instead becoming the catalyst for a next-gen healthcare delivery system. As technology is developed in a way that promotes personal preferences, aids in self-management, and increases access overall, we will see improvements in quality of care, better outcomes for patients, and management of costs.
At Makapt, we are firm believers that we can responsibly use technology to build patient-centered solutions for people - not systems. We are dedicated to innovation in healthcare applications and tools that responsibly integrate AI to empower patients and advocate for a healthier future. Check out more of our work on how we are working toward this change at Makapt.