When it comes to the limits of predictive analytics in insurance, the main concern is on the extent to which the sphere can apply artificial intelligence in its daily operations. Throughout the years, insurance was not eager to introduce new technologies.

However, some technical improvements have shown their benefits, especially car sensors, telematics, and social media software. Thanks to these know-hows, it’s possible to discuss the role and application of predictive analytics in the insurance industry today.

What Is Predictive Analytics?

In essence, predictive analytics is an analytical tool that keeps track of historical records. By searching for connection and logic in these data sets, it forecasts upcoming events.

In practice, applying predictive analytics aims to reach the entire business’s higher profitability and the effectiveness of its common practices.

Using and drawing models from the set of data, algorithms, and machine learning practices, predictive analytics enables to calculate the likelihood of certain events and the possibility of certain types of customer behavior.

This peculiarity makes this analytical tool highly attractive for businesses, promising them the greater competitive advantage and ability to feel the trends coming. And the key actors in the insurance sector also acknowledge these perks and incorporate predictive analytics into their daily practices.

The role of predictive analytics in the insurance industry

The surfeit of data makes the insurance industry a perfect sphere for predictive analytics implementation. In particular, this tool helps to construct basic patterns and get fundamental insights about the insurance business and manage the complex relations between agents and clients.

Mainly, predictive analytics is used in insurance for forecasting customer behavior. Precisely, the process involves collecting information from various communication channels, interactions with clients, agent feedback, and smart home systems. From all these sources, the analyst gets the raw data to define and improve existing relationships.

In practice, better claims management and clearer underwriting services are the main improvements that predictive analytics brings to the insurance industry. With the application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and behavioral intelligence, it turns the sphere into a data-driven, predictive, and efficient system.

The common areas for the predictive analytics process

Among all, the appropriate planning of a predictive analytics introduction ensures the insurer will experience all the benefits of this tool. That’s why you should pay precise attention to the areas of implementation. This way, you’ll get the most profit and effectiveness boost.

In essence, the most profitability comes from incorporating predictive analytics into claims management. Also, managing underwriting services will work well.

Start working with these two dimensions while establishing your predictive analytics process. Also, consider the nuances of life insurance and health insurance before building the predictive analytics process.

Predictive Analytics in Life Insurance

In life insurance, key industry actors mostly use predictive analytics to work with Big Data and track any valuable connections. In this context, the insights that are driven from this processing include better addressing of common concerns. They include sophisticated bureaucracy around underwriting and extra time spent on registration.

At the same time, purchases are the blind spot for predictive analytics in life insurance. There exist some difficulties with their modeling because of the lack of needed data in low-frequency periods. That’s why the key emphasis in life insurance analysis is on fixing the underwriting process to date.

Predictive Analytics in Health Insurance

Among all, predictive analytics in health insurance supports the key industry actors, like health agencies, hospitals, and medical providers. Its main improvements refer to the areas of business operations, operation accuracies, and treatment adjustments.

Specifically, the application of real-time reporting ensures timely and precise adjustments to the changing environment, including fast adaptation to the changes. At the same time, Deloitte’s report on using predictive analytics in health care warns of possible moral hazards of promising risk control. That’s why the application of this analytical tool calls for maximum caution.

How to get the most from the use of predictive analytics in insurance

Predictive analytics promises two main advantages for the insurance sphere: cost-effectiveness and problem-solving. That’s the reason why this tool is mostly associated with higher profits and better sales figures. However, you won’t be able to enjoy the full package of its advantages without knowing how to apply predictive analytics correctly in the exact insurance areas.

Predictive Analytics Sample Project in Insurance Claim Management

Since predictive analytics brings the most money to insurance businesses by managing claims, we highly recommend incorporating this tool as a project. By this, we mean working with data sets by adopting the “predict and act” approach, incorporating the tools in several stages, and setting effective KPIs.

Among all, by applying predictive analytics, you’ll create the background for better customer experience, greater operational excellence, and improved risk management. For the proper start, IBM Software report recommends adopting a “predict and act” approach to business decision making. It means getting clear answers to 3 questions:

• How are we doing? (Meaning what the insurance company thinks of itself and what its clients assume)
• Why? (The answer comes from user-driven top-down analytics and data-driven bottom-up analytics)
• What should we be doing? (Matching individual level and portfolio level).

With the right and timely answers, you’ll get the sustainable ground for taking effective action from the already connected data. This will let you pass five key decision points:

1. First notice of loss,
2. Additional information request,
3. In-depth investigation,
4. Payment and closing, and
5. Subrogation.

Finally, to track your progress, we recommend setting the following KPIs:

• Reserve adequacy,
• LAE,
• Fraud avoided,
• Investigator efficiency,
• Amount subrogated,
• Number of products per policyholder,
• Customer retention, etc.

Predictive Analytics in Insurance Claims

While claims management is already an integral part of the insurance routine, predictive analytics improves and significantly accelerates its processing. In particular, it enables high client personalization with the clear perks of better time management, cost optimization, and resource control.

These preventive measures ensure customer satisfaction, and the very chances claims will appear in the future are low. Simply put, the longer you use predictive analytics to manage insurance claims, the fewer claims you get in the future.

Outlier claims, as a special dimension in claim management, are also handled by predictive analytics effectively. In this case, the tool ensures cost-effectiveness by preventing expensive losses, thanks to the enhanced automation and similarity check. From a long-term perspective, this kind of digitalization enabled effective planning and informed decision-making.

Predictive analytics in the insurance industry: Steps to take

To make sure that predictive analytics in insurance will reveal its best, use this checklist on the necessary measures and tools. There can be many more steps, but these four actions are basic and inevitable.

“What-if” Modeling, or an Alternative Method for Predictive Analytics in Health Insurance 

“What-if” modeling is one of the most effective tools for underwriting preparation. In particular, it helps you check the underwriting workload, produce the registration process, and measure the impact.

Do Market Research

Market research is a critical part of any project strategy. So, don’t hesitate to use enhanced predictive analytical tools to determine your target market. Your data will include behavioral patterns, demographic aspects, and other important characteristics. Everything you need will be on social media, mostly.

Determine the Customer Loyalty Opportunities

Branding activity is an important part of any strategy, and predictive analytics can help here. In this case, your focus here should be on defining and analyzing their needs. An ability to address customer pains in the best manner possible will contribute to your future steady market success.

Determine KPIs

Working with measurable performance indicators makes your business problem achievable. That’s why you should set KPIs as the must-have stage in working with predictive analytics. Use the already collected data to understand your starting points and the milestones you’re about to reach. For example, KPIs for claims management can include reducing claims cycle time, customer satisfaction improvements, fraud control, claim recovery optimization, and savings.

Predictive analytics: Use cases in insurance

There are many good examples of predictive analytics in the insurance industry. In particular, it showed itself effective for data collection, risk management, product optimization, behavioral intelligence, Big Data analysis, and timely resolution of claims. In this section, we’ve collected the top 4 use cases of predictive analytics in insurance.

Pricing and Risk Mitigation

Data insights driven from firsthand information make the decision-making more effective. That’s because the availability of numerous sophisticated data sources enables drawing valid conclusions about customer behavior. Social media posts, smart technologies, and claims are by themselves highly reliable reference points. And the ability to collect and analyze them together in one place provides numerous advantages to insureds.

Customer Care

The great benefit of predictive analytics is in its power to save clients you’re about to lose. The data insights can track visitors who are unhappy or don’t use the insurance service fully and address their concerns long before they become the reason for your breakup.

Fraud Prevention

Predictive analytics has already started handling fraud risk effectively. In this context, social media serves as the perfect source for collecting insights and addressing threats.

Trends Tracking

Predictive analytics can help you keep a competitive advantage by keeping an eye on and notifying about emerging trends. In practical terms, insurers can arrange new products, design customer experiences, and incorporate necessary technological solutions.

Need to empower your insurance company with predictive analytics? Intellectsoft has created impactful solutions for EY, the London Stock Exchange, and EuroAccident. Explore what we offer for the insurance industry.

The post What Is Predictive Analytics in Insurance and How to Use It appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

The new reality calls for new approaches to appear. In the business world, brands try new communication styles and revise common business processes. Some of these changes have already shown their benefits. In traditional medicine, virtual health care demonstrates such results.

What is virtual health care?

Virtual health care means applying traditional medical practices remotely. The term gained its title as doctors consult their clients during virtual visits.

What is Telehealth?

Telehealth is a broader term. Here, the virtual visit involves technology. Its tools can be simple (a phone call) or sophisticated (collecting analytics and creating the infection images). When it comes to mobile technologies and apps, Telehealth turns into mHealth.

What’s the difference between Telehealth and telemedicine?

The contemporary Telehealth technology started as telemedicine, adopted in call centers. These days, Telehealth relies on various channels of distant communication: videos, e-mails, and even fax.

Besides, it evolved by including augmented reality and artificial intelligence. These days, Telehealth opportunities already include these and other options:

• Google AI Calculation — the tool for distant analyzing and curing diabetic retinopathy,
• Big Data — to prevent calamitous diseases by identifying early symptoms,
• Robots — to provide in-house help for older people.

How virtual health services and Telehealth services transform the contemporary health system

All the Telehealth technologies had appeared long before the international lockdown announcement. Nevertheless, the development of the industry is outstanding these days.

For several years, US Telehealth has been serving the needs of teleradiology, teledermatology, and telepathology. Back in 2014, the majority of healthcare organizations already provided their patients with three key opportunities of telemedicine:

• Store and forward — the electronic tool for storing clinical data and sending it forward for evaluation,
• Remote monitoring — self-monitoring the signs of clinical diseases (like asthma and cardiovascular problems),
• Real-time interaction — virtual care services to get immediate medical attention.

Source: Statista, Availability of selected telemedicine practices to U.S. patients as of 2014

With virtual health care through Telehealth solutions, doctors can make better diagnoses, take eldercare to a higher level, and provide stable patient monitoring. All these possibilities raised extra importance with the Coronavirus spread.

Specifically, Telehealth can address the problems with distant monitoring, the vulnerability of elderly people, and hard-to-track symptoms. Moreover, the national lockdown has fueled Telehealth adoption through the increasing number of mHealth apps.

What are examples of Telehealth and mHealth apps: Successful cases worth your attention

Here’s the list of successful Telehealth technology examples: 3 Telehealth solutions and 2 categories of mHealth apps. They both demonstrate great results and provide a meaningful service in the age of Coronavirus lockdown.

USC Telehealth

USC Telehealth is a Telehealth online clinic that provides medical interventions in the form of video conferences. Being an academic institution, USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work guarantees professional online counseling and psychotherapy services to its clients. The sessions last 50 minutes on a weekly basis for three months. The center is situated in Los Angeles, and its working languages are English and Spanish.

The evidence-based practice from the school includes:

• Motivational interviewing,
• Problem-solving therapy,
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy,
• Other forms of psychotherapy.

Contact: Call (866) 740-6502 or write here

Home Telehealth

Home Telehealth is a tool that helps patients manage their chronic diseases. Among various Telehealth solutions, it’s the best option because it combines the achievements of all three types of telemedicine. You can self-monitor your health state, send the data for evaluation, and contact your doctor for health coaching. For consultations, the system has audio and video conferencing options.

The tool has already proved its extreme effectiveness in Veteran Health Administration and treating chronic diseases. Moreover, Home Telehealth is the basic equipment you need during the lockdown for the regular doctor visit during self-isolation.

Salus Telehealth

Salus Telehealth is the telemedicine institution that makes a difference globally. It aims at popularizing Telehealth among patients, healthcare IT services, providers, and businesses. For patients, the company grants access to virtual treatment.

This list of treatments includes allergies, bronchitis, aches in ears and eyes, sore throat, flu, infections, and bug bites. For providers, the Salus network works as an online team that helps to expand reach.

The company developed the Salus app and several setup devices. This way, it connects patients with the best doctors remotely. The set of Telehealth solutions includes consulting patients, making diagnoses, and choosing the best treatment. In times like these, Salus Telehealth sees its mission in relieving the pressure from the national healthcare system and saving critical space in emergency rooms.

Fooducate and MySugr, top mHealth apps for diabetes

Many mHealth apps have already shown their effectiveness. Among many available options for managing diabetes remotely, Fooducate and MySugr are the best picks.

Fooducate is the eating couch that assists in normalizing nutrition. It has everything needed to track your health state: intake of calories, nutrients, macro elements, sleep quality, and daily activity. For diabetes control, it can calculate the amount of sugar in all the foods, both organic and processed.

MySugr is another option for nutrition management. It assists in tracking sugar in your blood. The app is synced with a glucose monitor. Also, it can send you notifications to follow-up with extra data to make the most of your app. Later, this information can be discussed with your doctor during a virtual visit.

Medici and PingMD: Some of the best mHealth apps for patients

Another category of great mHealth apps is patient-oriented services. Among various mobile solutions, we recommend paying attention to Medici and PingMD.

Medici is the platform for connecting with your hospital online through video chats and texting. With it, you can reach your personal doctor who has a Medici doctor app from his/her side. This feature allows your medical adviser to set the fees and working hours. If you invite all your doctors, you will establish the complete network for your remote consultations. This is the most convenient way to make your regular visits in the pandemic era.

PingMD doesn’t offer video chats but has another helpful feature. It’s the platform to discuss the most interesting information in healthcare, including verifying the news about Coronavirus. However, be careful with the software updates — check the compatibility of this app with your smartphone before filling your information in it.

Pros and cons of Telehealth

Among the most evident advantages Telehealth shows, there are

• broader access to the healthcare system — meaning treating more groups of patients and those living in backwoods,
• cost-effectiveness — minimizing traveling time and costs, and
• service improvements — including greater self-discipline of patients and better shipment quality.

But this success of Telehealth has its flip side. Here arise three types of issues:

• legal compilations,
• ethical and communication problems,
• technological difficulties.

Source: Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, 2016 Survey of US Health Care Consumers

Legal problems arise because Telehealth technology is still associated with old-fashioned telemedicine. These days, the same problem has another root: this complex platform needs management by governmental norms to work better. Before that happens, the issues with trust in doctor-patient relationships will inevitably appear.

The virtual connection also causes communication problems: a phone call challenges doctors with finding new approaches to evaluating the client’s health state. And even if the doctor manages this situation, the ethical problems with Telehealth remain sharp. They involve security concerns and confidentiality of virtual visits.

Finally, the poor Internet connection and novelty of technologies is also the problem for Telehealth expansion. People are still cautious of using smartphones and computers for treatments and consultations, which are used in traditional in-person contact.

Telehealth and other forms of virtual care: Is there a future for them?

The quarantine accelerated the pace of virtual care development, but what will happen when it ends? Many experts believe in this way of healthcare progress. According to Deloitte Insights, the future of virtual health care is more than promising: it will improve procedures, client service, and the overall quality of treatment.

Source: Deloitte Insights analysis

Even though Telehealth still experiences legal and ethical problems, the technology possesses many perspectives. The current lockdown showed its potential to become the real solution for maintaining the well-being of the nation. It can treat both diseases other than Coronavirus-related and mental health.

Moreover, the abilities of virtual health care include saving traveling costs and conducting more accurate patient monitoring. All these factors will fuel the development of this technology long after the Coronavirus lockdown ends. And if this pandemic really shapes new social norms and drives new social rules, humanity should get prepared for starting today.

We, at Intellectsoft, empower companies and their healthcare workforce with cutting-edge transformative solutions and data-driven insights. Are you and your organization ready to shift the mindsets and get the most out of innovations?

Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business or project can start benefiting from it today!

The post The Future of Virtual Health: Telehealth, mHealth Apps, Virtual Care, and More to Come appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

The perks of applying for all the technological advances in one’s industry are endless. The particular benefit is technology having a direct impact on human health and longevity. Healthcare is at the edge of a technological revolution that will bring unexpected opportunities.

In this article, we will cover the top 15 types of healthcare software popular among private and public sectors. We will dwell upon the peculiarities of each program and define its possible benefits in the industry. We will discover how various native and external apps can solve tons of problems. Not only can appropriate software reduce health costs, but it can also provide personalized insights for every patient.

The Top 15 Types of Healthcare Software on Point in 2020

Healthcare Management Software

Management programs aim at optimizing the working process and improving the overall quality of service. Whether it’s an app designed to manage medical equipment or an administrative-like application to assist with financial and organization functions, its goal is to eliminate as many human errors as possible and enhance patient care.

With well-designed software applications and solutions for the healthcare industry, most of the manual processes can be automated, making administrative and management procedures faster and more efficient.

Unfortunately, there is still software that covers a broad spectrum of features, as mostly you’ll come across programs specifically designed to deal with a particular factor like scheduling, billing, analytics, electronic medical records (EMR), etc.

Online communication between patients and doctors is also possible with well-crafted and well-protected applications, securing a safe place for discussing personal details without the risk of these details being exposed.

Healthcare Scheduling Software

There are two distinct types of programs — one dealing with patient schedules, and the other with staff schedules. While the former simplifies the process of getting an appointment with a doctor, the latter maintains health care employee schedules.

Both types of applications are aimed at reducing scheduling friction, detecting any irregularities, and as a result of improving patient care. It exists as a standalone app, as well as it can be added as a feature to a broad-spectrum management app developed for a hospital.

Appointment scheduling minimizes the waiting time of patients, and with a well-designed interface makes this process fast and “painless.” Usually, a patient should register to use the app, and afterward can book an appointment to a particular doctor at a specific date and time. It’s way more convenient than the old lining up and crowding the hall of a hospital.

Healthcare CRM Software

A thoroughly designed CRM focuses on establishing strong relationships between a patient and their practitioners/or a hospital. These interactions are personalized to provide clients with the utmost caring services. What is more, it enables monitoring and assessing the efficiency of professional staff working at the hospital. As more actions are automated with CRM, it improves customer satisfaction significantly.

In addition to this, such software is optimized by marketing and sales specialists, as the key role of individuals using the app is customers. Automated notifications, email marketing, personalization of content, all-round profiles of patients, automated analytics, monitoring various clients’ satisfaction factors – all this is aimed at making patients’ experience as customers better. And that what makes CRM different from electronic health records (EHR) that is primarily concerned with patient treatment and is designed for qualified clinicians only.

Healthcare Billing Software

The best solution to automate manual billing processes and monitor payments from any device within several clicks. Secure payments that improve clients’ satisfaction and centralized medical billing enable access to a single database for various providers in various locations.

Such software usually offers a broad spectrum of analytical data that helps monitor financial health and provides excellent insights into possible revenue opportunities. What is more, with such a single-base program, less manual mistakes will take place that often occurs by copying-and-pasting data between systems.

When several practices are growing to become large organizations, such software is the number one priority for a business to keep profitable and successful. All in this type of program helps to make transactions more transparent and prevent any frauds.

Healthcare Claims Processing Software

Managing healthcare and insurance claims is more efficient with a well-executed program. As many manual processes are automated, the overall analysis and evaluation of applications are faster and more quality. It’s easier to detect fraudulent claims, keep all the data organized in one centralized system.

Healthcare Management Software

Consequently, while the whole procedure is optimized, customers’ satisfaction is boosted as well. The program enables a practice to assess the complexity of a particular claim and the risks and likelihood of litigation. At the time, users enjoy the simplicity and convenience to leave a request with such a program.

All the data is integrated successfully no matter the formatting (whether it’s PDF, images, flat files, etc.) Finally, robust software enables users to proceed with claims via any desirable channel, including email, contact center, website, or even phone applications. A practice may acquire such a program as an independent tool or a wide spectrum software feature.

Healthcare Analytics Software

“Data is the new oil.” The quotation has become so common that no one is no longer surprised by hearing that. Any field can genuinely benefit from acquiring tons of data and analyzing it significantly to improve service quality and future revenues.

In brief, such software will collect all the data a healthcare organization deals with every day and will provide significant insights regarding patient care, management, billing procedures, scheduling, etc.

Suppose such a program is integrated with EHRs. In that case, it opens a unique opportunity of quality predictive and prescriptive analytics for every patient individually and the whole database of patients.

On a global scale, such software can help predict epidemics and pandemics’ outbreaks thanks to the data collected. That is to say, and practice can benefit from employing the following tool.

Healthcare Accounting Software

Another useful tool to optimize the working process is by eliminating the number of manual errors and monitoring accounting operations more efficiently.

Moreover, a single program can significantly reduce staffing costs and follow all the processes more accurately. Big organizations will enjoy a shared chart of accounts and real-time access to any metrics. This saves time, keeping the expenses, and monitoring the revenues. Such software makes it easier to see the bigger picture of a financial situation any time you need it.

Most importantly, with a tool like this, you can examine the current state of affairs at your practice or health organization on the go, whenever and wherever you need. Managing accounts doesn’t cause headaches all the time, and when it does, it’s probably because a practice has no software required.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Software

Keeping patients’ records can be optimized with such a tool. It’s no longer about the medical record, just going digital and being stored online. The latest programs enable a more meaningful and efficient connection between a patient and a practitioner.

There is a number of features: starting with patient cards organized chronologically to customizable templates specifically designed for the needs of practitioners. All the needed patients’ info, medical charts, and procedures details are all stored in digital format and can be easily accessed by practitioners of a healthcare organization.

The fundamental goal of such a tool is to secure the safe storage of patients’ medical data from various departments within one protected system. So, it speeds up the workflow of EHR and empowers the practice to offer better medical services to its patients.

Medical Diagnosis Software

This particular type probably holds the most potential to offer healthcare. AI technology is developing truly fast and has already started to revolutionize the field of medical care. From a helping feature to accelerate the process of diagnosis to an independent tool to detect a health risk earlier than the practitioners themselves – that’s the future AI holds.

In times of COVID-19, there’s already an AI tool specifically designed to help doctors to detect the suspicious symptoms and come up with the correct diagnosis. With such a program, the exchange of info among various departments is faster, and more quality.

As practitioners from different fields add data to a patient’s card in real-time, it’s easier to see the bigger picture. That adds AI to such a tool, and it will examine and offer a possible diagnosis straightaway.

Imaging and Visualization

‘Artificial intelligence will not replace radiologists … but radiologists who use AI will replace radiologists who don’t.’ The same thing can be said about the practices employing and not employing the opportunities for imaging and visualization tools. CT scanning and MRI took health treatment to a new level, and so medical imaging will.

Such programs will empower practitioners to monitor various body systems in a real-time visual representation. Surgery is the first field to benefit from such a tool, as it helps doctors to conduct safer and more accurate procedures.

Now, add machine learning, deep learning, and/or AI so that such software will significantly enhance doctors’ expertise. No matter how hard a human may try, a machine can examine more info faster, and with a broader number of outlooks.

Medical Database Software

This tool is quite similar to EHR, as it also collects and stores patients’ data like medical records, procedures, medications etc. However, this software classifies cases in accordance with disease diagnosis.

While the EHR is more focused on each patient individually, a database will provide a bigger outlook, as its main concern is overall stored information. The medical data is usually managed via Cloud storage so that it’s easy to access it anytime and any place. With a carefully stored info about previous cases, practitioners are empowered with unique opportunities to make more accurate and faster clinical decisions (that is vital in terms of healthcare).

Generally, such a tool is easy to navigate and customized according to the specific needs of a practice. Customized templates and features improve the quality of service and as a result patients’ care.

E-prescribing Software

Yet another tool to significantly lower the risks of manual errors and misunderstandings. With such a program, a practitioner can directly connect with pharmacies for prescriptions.

In other words, no need to decipher the handwriting of your doctor, as the pharmacy will already get all the needed info about the treatment you need and medications required. That is to say, it speeds up the process of receiving the medication, as well as improves the safety of a patient by eliminating medication errors.

What is more, with such a tool, all the prescribed medicine is instantly recorded in electronic patients’ cards. That is why in case a new doctor will take charge, they will have the info about the whole treatment process of a patient.

Medical Research Software

Such programs work both ways. On the one hand, digital platforms offer accurate and important research literature reviews for practitioners to examine and apply in treating a patient.

On the other hand, when treating a patient, a doctor may reference patient files that, in turn, will help with medical research. As a huge healthcare organization, one can benefit from having a large portal where all the results are stored and can be accessed by different researchers from different fields.

Such healthcare software development helps to increase the speed of new discoveries and outbreaks in the field of medicine. With the opportunities to use the latest tools and provide an in-depth analysis of the findings with the help of machine learning or AI, it’s much easier to reach the edge of a new breakthrough.

Telemedicine Software

Needless to say that telemedicine has never been reaching its potential as much as it’s in 2020 due to COVID-19 outbreak, and everything is going online. More and more patients are eager to receive consultations without going to the doctor’s office.

This tool is what makes medical treatment online possible, accessible, and effective. It won’t enable a practitioner to carry out surgery online, but updating medication prescriptions, and monitoring patients with existing conditions is not only possible, but it’s also easy and convenient.

To bring the best out of it, this tool is often used to feature a wider spectrum of software, including EHR, electronic medication prescription and billing (so that payments are also carried online with no sweat). However, it can be designed as a standalone program as well to meet the specific needs of a practice.

Personal Health Record Software

This particular tool will store all the medical records of family members. Patients enjoy having all the health issues being organized in one easy-to-use interface. It can just serve as an optimization tool that provides access to the needed data on any device so that patients can easily monitor this info.

Combining some analytical features and notifications can inform a patient’s practitioner about their health situation or notify a patient about the upcoming regular procedures. In other words, with all the personal records stored, such a tool can serve as a wellness program that helps patients keep track of their health problems and lead a more sound lifestyle. Personalized wellness strategies, keeping all the documents in one place, and notifying practitioners about unexpected emergencies – it’s all possible with such a tool.

We, at Intellectsoft, empower companies and their workforce with cutting-edge transformative solutions and data-driven insights. Are you and your organization ready to shift the mindsets and get the most out of innovations?

Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business or project can start benefiting from it today!

The post The Emerging Types of Healthcare Software: Why So Many? appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

You will learn:

• Where do beacons come from
• What is beacon technology
• How does it work
• The many types of beacons
• How they benefit companies across industries
• Pros and cons of the devices
• How technology would evolve

Let’s start!

What Is Beacon Technology

Beacon devices are at the heart of beacon technology.

Most beacons are small computers, roughly the size of a standard Wi-Fi router.

Part of indoor and outdoor positioning systems and Internet of Things (IoT) networks, beacons use proximity technology to detect human presence nearby and trigger preset actions to deliver informational, contextual, and personalized experiences.

Brief History: Where Did Beacon Technology Begin?

The concept of beacons is as old as, for example, hand watches. Like lighthouses guide ships and show where the land is, beacon devices provide information and navigation to smartphone users. Beacon technology offers a new context for an old concept.

As we know it now, the beacon technology was introduced by Apple alongside a dedicated communication standard.

Called iBeacon, it was soon followed by Google’s Eddystone. The location beacon, which is rough twice the size of Apple’s Wi-Fi router Airport was a typical beacon device in the first years since 2013. 

In a short time, beacon technology spawned many startups and new beacon types. Unlike other new technologies like Augmented and Virtual Reality, beacons were straightforwardly effective and had a low price tag. On top of that, they provided new, exciting ways to engage customers in a non-intrusive way. As a result, many established retail companies quickly adopted beacons and started reaping their benefits.

How Do Beacons Work

When a user walks past an area where a positioning system or IoT network with beacons is set up, the nearest beacon sends a code with a message to their mobile device. Then, the message pops up as a notification on a user’s mobile device with a third-party or branded mobile app.

You need 3 things to make a beacon-based system work:

• At least one more beacon device
• Mobile app
• User’s permission

Beacon technology offerings usually consist of a software development kit (SDK), back end management tools, and beacon devices. So, you will need software engineers to set up your positioning system, more so if beacons are part of a vast IoT network that includes other devices.

To enable beacon support, a smartphone must have an iOS 7 or higher or Android 4 or higher. Apple’s beacon standard is called iBeacon, while Google’s — Eddystone.

As for the user permission, your users make the final decision on whether they will receive beacon-based notifications and use your positioning system. Beacon technology works only with a smartphone and mobile app, so users can simply opt for turning off Bluetooth. There are also people who use their smartphones without keeping Bluetooth on all the time.

To overcome this obstacle, you can ask your users to turn on Bluetooth for the full customer experience, or even excite your users by notifying them about the beacon-based positioning system, presenting it as an innovative solution, and explaining what benefits it holds for them.

As a result, beacon technology appears as less intrusive than the similar RFID (radio-frequency identification) and other engagement tools, enabling a user experience where a user has a choice to opt out.

BLE as Bluetooth Beacon Technology

Beacon technology relies on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to send out messages at regular intervals. BLE is a power-efficient Bluetooth technology developed for the Internet of Things applications and devices like beacons. With BLE, a beacon needs only one coin cell battery every three years, and the technology is 60 to 80 percent cheaper than the classic Bluetooth.

Types of Beacons

There is a wide array of beacons available for positioning systems of any type and scale. They differ in size, battery life, use cases, and level of resistance to exogenous factors. Here are the common types of beacons:

• Standard beacon (devices the size of a Wi-Fi router or smaller) for proximity solutions and indoor tracking.
• Portable/small beacon (the size of a credit card or big sticker) for asset tracking and proximity solutions.
• USB beacon (small, portable, quick to deploy) — beacons the size of a flash drive for asset tracking and proximity solutions.
• Video beacon — devices plugged into the back of a screen to deliver contextual visual information (for example, a user approaches a display in a food joint and shows personalized offers based on usage of the beacon-enabling app) as well as for digital signage.
• AI beacon. A machine learning-driven device that can detect different movements and gestures.
• Sticker beacon — the smallest of beacons, used for asset tracking.
• Parent beacon (the size of big Wi-Fi routers) is used to track other beacons, gather data and store it in the cloud, and more.
• Dedicated beacon — devices resistant to exogenous factors (dust, water, shattering, antistatic and UV) for indoor tracking and proximity solutions in harsh environments.

Most of the aforementioned beacon types emerged in the years since the inception of beacon technology to accommodate the business needs of different companies, so new ones may come into being in the future, giving companies new options to engage customers.

Benefits: What Are Beacons Used For

Beacon technology can improve the user experience both at the front and back end of almost any company, helping to streamline operations and gather data, drive sales, and deliver unique user experiences. Still, the retail and marketing industries benefit from beacons the most, as they are almost tailor-made for the two.

Front & Back End of Business

At the front end, for example, at a retail store, you can pair beacons with a custom app to notify shoppers about limited in-store offers, deliver personalized promotions, and provide navigation at vast retail locations.

At the back end, beacons are as effective. You can set up a beacon-based indoor positioning system at a warehouse to simplify and speed up the navigation in its bigger areas for new employees and representatives of third parties. Paired with an enterprise software development solution, beacons also allow for indoor personnel tracking to improve on-premises security as well as asset tracking.

For instance, an employee of a large enterprise needs a new laptop. The system administrator chooses one from the list of available laptops as a sticker beacon on it shows its location.

Beacons Elevate Marketing

Today, companies and their marketing teams mostly rely on emerging technologies to cater to and engage customers. Small and hidden beacons have a smaller appeal, but they can have a big impact.

In a standout example, RedBull used beacon stickers to monitor the movements of audience members at a music event. First, the devices collected different types of data. Then, scientists used it to create algorithms and deep neural networks to understand the movements and energy levels of audience members.

The results were visualized on the walls of a separate room at the venue. RedBull then went further, allowing the audience to take their individual information home as a souvenir, embroidered on a scarf. This is also an example of how beacon technology can be used successfully without a mobile app.

RedBull

Other Uses in Marketing:

• A new avenue for driving sales. You can pair beacons with mobile to deliver highly personalized location-based ads.
• One more way to collect data. Beacons can gather customer data that will help you create better, more personalized experiences, as well as gain additional insights into customers’ behavior.
• New meaningful experiences for customers. Like RedBull’s beacon stickers, some types of beacons give a lot of room to experiment and develop creative solutions that your customers will remember for a long time.

Other industries that can leverage beacon technology:

• Hospitality (navigation, gamification, smart hotel rooms)
• Sports (navigation on big arenas, proximity marketing)
• Logistics & warehousing (asset tracking, security)
• Smart home development (beacons can provide navigations to guests at vast properties; security)
• Construction (geofencing perimeters for projects in the middle of nowhere)
• Events (gamification, navigation, schedule notifications)

Video beacons are the go-to example when it comes to showcasing the high value of beacon technology. For example, you can use video beacons to deliver contextual information and provide navigation at a hotel or resort. Such experiences are fresh, save time, and imbue the customer journey with small but memorable moments.

Beacon Technology Pros and Cons 

Beacon technology has a wide array of solid business benefits and only a few disadvantages.

Pros:

• Low cost. Standard models are small and made of low-cost materials like plastic, making beacons more cost-effective than other state-of-the-art technologies.
• Easy to adopt. Most beacon devices are quick to deploy. Some, like USB beacons, are as easy to install as a computer mouse. Deploying beacons at scale is also easy with parent beacons.
• Tailored-made customer experiences. Beacon technology allows companies send personalized notifications and ads.
• Reliability and scalability. Beacons are dependable devices: unlike GPS, they use Bluetooth, so thick walls or underground areas will not block their signals. More so, some beacon suppliers offer beacons that are reinforced against exogenous factors.
• Vast outreach. All modern smartphones support beacon technology (your users need iOS 7 or Android 4 or higher installed on their devices), so you can reach out to virtually anyone, anywhere.
• Easy implementation. The majority of beacon technology offerings come with a software development kit (SDK) and back end management tools, making it easy to integrate a beacon solution with existing applications.

Cons:

• Users may opt-out. Most beacon-based solutions require user consent. Today, the flow of content from all sides seems endless, and even if you use only a few apps daily, you still get a lot of notifications. In the face of content overload, some users can simply turn off Bluetooth on their smartphones, preferring to miss out on your beacon-based experience, even if it is exciting and non-intrusive.
• A mobile app is a must. In most cases, beacons work only when paired with a mobile app. There are workarounds like third-party applications, but if you want to deliver a smooth experience your customers will definitely enjoy, you will at least need to add a feature to your application.
• Creating a beacon solution is not ubiquitously easy. The use cases of beacon technology are straightforward in the retail and marketing industries. Beacons can also be used effectively by hotels and companies that develop smart room solutions. In other cases, you should get creative or hire a software engineer with expertise in beacon-based or geofencing solutions, and this will take time, more so if your company is a medium-sized business or enterprise that needs a highly scalable solution.

Conclusion: The Future of Beacons

According to Global Market Insights, the beacon technology market is projected to surpass $25 billion in 2025.

In 2018, Google also started sending free beacons to small businesses in the U.S. to make their locations more visible to customers that are nearby. Meanwhile, new types of beacons continue to emerge (like AI beacon, introduced by Estimote in October 2019). Plus, when the amount of content and visual information seems endless, beacons’ promise of the spot-on non-intrusive mode of engagement may make all the difference to consumers.

Taking all this into account, it is safe to assume that more and more business locations will have beacons installed in them in the coming years. Although long-term projections might not reflect reality in the end, there are no visible hurdles on the way of large-scale beacon technology adoption. After all, beacons demand little to invest, are easy to set up and manage regardless of business scale, and bring clear, straightforward benefits to business across industries. Why not leverage them?

We, at Intellectsoft, empower companies and their workforce with cutting-edge transformative solutions and data-driven insights. Are you and your organization ready to shift the mindsets and get the most out of innovations?

Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business or project can start benefiting from it today!

The post What Are Beacons and How Beacons Technology Works appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Worldwide pandemic has shown us that countries and their authorities around the globe have to pay more attention and invest more in healthcare IT solutions, the development and enhancement of the medical field.

Top 10 Technology Trends in Healthcare

Nowadays, we experience digital transformation in numerous industries, and healthcare is not an exception to this process. The implementation of available tools and solutions has given rise for several healthcare technology trends among which the following ones:

1. Telemedicine
2. Internet of Medical Things
3. Cloud computing
4. AI/ML
5. AR
6. VR
7. Chatbots
8. Blockchain
9. Data science
10. EHR

Although the process of transformation has only started, the number of benefits they have will change the future of the healthcare field by reducing the costs, giving better diagnosis results, making it easier to get treatment in remote areas, saving time, etc.

Emerging Healthcare Technology Trends and Their Deployment

 Worldwide pandemic has shown us that countries all around the world should pay more attention and invest more in the development and enhancement of the healthcare environment. Making it better means the prevention of severe problems and situations like this one.

Deployment of all the latest technology trends in the healthcare industry can significantly change the image of the field we know today. The enhancement will lead to thousands of saved lives in emergencies.

Intellectsoft helps organizations and companies across various industries, including healthcare, to implement and use technologies for the sake of human life. If you have a revolutionary idea in mind that can help people fight diseases, talk to our experts, and learn more about the topic. Our team of professionals can turn your idea into reality, and together we can make this world a better place.

Telemedicine Trends: Remote Treatment

Telemedicine is a remote diagnosis and treatment of patients using telecommunication technologies as given by the World Health Organization (the WHO) in the 2010 report on eHealth. The use of cutting edge telemedicine trends is especially useful in areas that have limited or no developed infrastructure.

For instance, locals in Alaska recognized two decades ago that some villages do not have proper access to healthcare services, and there are no doctors or practicing nurses. Thus, they tried to bring telemedicine trends into practice and bridged patients with doctors or practicing nurses with specialists who can help locals get high-quality treatment.

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium has successfully used this technology since 2001, and now there is no need to go on a long journey when it is unnecessary. Trends in telemedicine that have already been applied have given a chance for ship crews to get on-board treatment. Maritime doctors in Alaska are already treating sailors using telehealth platforms and show excellent results.

Trends in telemedicine also show high potential for education and sharing knowledge between developed and developing countries, as they bring together specialists from different countries.

Internet of Medical Things Trends: Connected Wearables

The Internet of Medical Things is another trend in healthcare. It is the collection of medical and wearable devices that connect to healthcare IT systems through online computer networks.

The Internet of things in medical devices gives a chance to take a number of common medical measurements like temperature, blood pressure, glucose level, heart rate, etc. Internet of Medical Things includes such wearables and devices as

• ECG,
• EKG monitors,
• smart beds,
• glucose monitors,
• connected inhalers, etc.

Companies like Philips offer systems like Patient Monitoring to help specialists stay connected with their patients and provide on-time treatment or assign the right practitioner to take care of a particular case. Another example is Dexcom G5 that provides real-time glucose readings for patients with 1 and 2 types of diabetes every five minutes.

This technology helps doctors be aware of the current state of the patients, analyze collected data better, keep all the records, and stay connected 24/7.

How Is Cloud Computing Used in Healthcare?

Cloud computing in healthcare offers different public, private and hybrid platforms that allow easy file-sharing of any size. It also gives an opportunity for hospitals or healthcare organizations to build a secure infrastructure for keeping records. The technology also helps to make consultations easier and more convenient as they can be video- or text-based.

Five Benefits of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Cloud computing in the healthcare industry brings several benefits that enhance the medical sphere. We have distinguished the top five ones:

• easy and quick accessibility as the data is stored in the cloud and can be reached anytime from any device;
• cost-effective (requires fewer investments than the development of hardware);
• makes data analyzes more efficient;
• facilitates tracking of patient’s state and recovery process;
• scalable — makes it easier for healthcare providers to increase or decrease the space for data storage, depending on the patient’s flow.

Cloud Computing in Healthcare: Examples

Due to its benefits and advantages, cloud computing in healthcare started to be widely used and implemented into IT systems of hospitals and health organizations. For example, IBM has created a cloud-based application, “Collaborative Care Solution,” that helps to accelerate healthcare management.

Companies like Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Dell offer cloud computing platforms that have a high level of security and keep critical data protected. GE Healthcare that runs on Amazon EC2, provides medical imaging tools and diagnostic imaging agents. It transforms collected information from medical devices into valuable patient data and makes it easy to view, process, and share images and patient cases.

What are Cloud Computing Risks in Healthcare?

 Among the top concerns of cloud computing in the healthcare industry are security, privacy, and system downtimes.

Personal patient’s data is tentative and requires a high level of security of a cloud-based platform that will help to protect it from external threats. For example, blockchain technology can be used to ensure security measures and keep stored data protected.

System downtimes can be prevented at the initial stage of app development, knowing possible failures, and having back-up plans on resolving the issues will help organizations to overcome downtimes of the system.

As for privacy matters, healthcare businesses should choose a reliable cloud provider who acts according to the rules and regulations stated by HIPAA of 1996.

How Is AR Being Used in Healthcare?

AR in healthcare becomes more and more applied across the industry. The technology can be used for educational purposes as it allows to have a visual presentation of human body organs.

AR in healthcare makes it possible for doctors to diagnose symptoms more precisely when patients cannot provide detailed information. It also allows doctors to be more illustrative when explaining new treatment or to show patients how drugs will influence their body in an interactive way.

For instance, AccuVein is a vein visualization device that helps professionals find the patient’s veins for blood draws easier. Another example of AR in healthcare is EchoPixel is a medical visualization software platform that depicts human organs in open space. It can be used as a pre-surgery software to simulate and evaluate surgical treatment options.

Innovative Ways to Use VR in Healthcare

Simulated environments have proven to be very helpful both for patients and healthcare professionals. For this reason, VR in healthcare is becoming widely used as it gives access to visual experiences and activities that are impossible in reality, thus helping doctors to provide better treatment to their patients.

VR in healthcare helps with the planning of complicated surgeries, improves doctor skills during professional training, motivates users to exercise, and helps with emotional health treatment.

For example, Neuro Rehab VR develops VR training exercises that suit the individual needs of the patient and make the recovery process more enjoyable and engaging. Another case of VR usage in healthcare is a project by the students of the University of New England. The project aims to show young medical students what it is like to be an older person and help them develop empathy.

AI in Healthcare: Its Benefits

AI in healthcare has great potential in reshaping and enhancing the industry and bringing to the next level. Empowered with human-like processing and analytical abilities, AI  in healthcare can improve the speed of decision-making and make the diagnosis process more accurate, as well as limit the number of mistakes. Benefits of AI in healthcare include task automation, big data analysis, delivery of better healthcare faster.

The future of AI in healthcare means better medical outcomes, advanced treatment, and more patient engagement in the process. For example, PathAI technology helps doctors to reduce errors in cancer diagnoses and develops methods for individualized medical treatment. Enlitic develops tools based on AI to advance medical diagnostics by analyzing unstructured medical records and giving doctors better insights on the patient’s current state and needs.

Chatbots in Healthcare: Alternative to Human Workforce

Chatbots in healthcare are alternatives to hospital administrators, as they can easily collect appointment requests and schedule them. This technology can also be used as a medical consultant and answer questions regarding health conditions.

This is very useful as nowadays, we can find numerous unreliable resources on the Internet and come up with the wrong conclusions, so it’s better to have trustful support that can help patients instantly.

OneRemission is one of the examples of chatbots in the healthcare industry. Its chatbot helps those who fight against cancer by providing the list of diets, exercises, and post-cancer practices. Florence is another great example of chatbots in the healthcare industry or better to say “a personal nurse” who reminds its patients to take pills, helps to find the nearest doctor’s office, and tracks the user’s health state (like body weight, mood, period, etc.).

Data Science in Healthcare: Taking Analysis to the Next Level

Healthcare data science can revolutionize the industry together with the other available tools and solutions. Data science and healthcare are inseparable as medical records contain useful information that can be analyzed and used to prevent diseases, create a better treatment, and help discover new drugs.

Healthcare data science solutions gather information through wearables, monitor, and help to prevent health problems. One of the healthcare data science projects is OASIS that aims to give the scientific community free access to neuroimaging data sets of the brain. One more example is BERG Health; the company analyzes biological samples to reshape the cancer medical market.

Blockchain in Healthcare: Security and Accessibility

Blockchain in healthcare is another trend that helps to enforce the industry with secure platforms and facilitate data access. Blockchain in healthcare today allows patients to use a public-private key and decide who will be able to view their personal medical records or invite a specialist via a system to give consultation regarding health issues.

Blockchain Healthcare Use Cases

Blockchain technology in healthcare has been incorporated into different applications and systems like BurstIQ that help companies to improve the sharing and usage of medical data. Another example of the utilization of blockchain in healthcare is Factom that aims to store digital health records securely.

Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) in the Healthcare Industry

Medical records of the patients are usually stored in forms like paper, audio, or video and contain information like patient ID, diagnoses, treatment, laboratory results, surgeries, etc. Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) software helps to store this data electronically and is superior to paper records as they do not deteriorate, could not be lost, and do not require physical space.

For example, Amrita Medical Solutions serves critical access and rural hospitals. The company’s web-based system provides customized billing and 24/7 EHR tech support. CGI is another of the kind and offers health systems with EHR solutions designed to enable more accurate and faster diagnoses.

In a Nutshell

Healthcare technology trends help to reshape and enhance the industry, and what is more, they bring several advantages both for medical professionals and patients. Although the process is rather slow, still more and more hospitals and health organizations acquire cutting edge technologies and solutions to make their services better.

Combined, the healthcare field and IT industry are showing astonishing results and help thousands of people cope with diseases faster, more comfortably, and more effectively. We experience a significant change that once was only possible in Sci-Fi fiction.

This pandemic shapes new social norms and drives new social rules that humanity should get prepared for starting today. We, at Intellectsoft, empower companies and their workforces with innovation services and approaches to help them survive during these times. Are you and your organization looking for some?

Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business can start benefiting from it today!

The post 10 Healthcare Technology Trends to Watch in 2020 appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

We believe that, as technologies like AI are still early-stage and rapidly evolving, especially during COVID-19 times, the community has an important opportunity to ensure that technologies are effectively introduced and scaled.

In brief:

1. AI is getting increasingly sophisticated at doing what the health-sector workforce does. But more efficiently, more quickly and at a lower cost.
2. AI represents a significant opportunity for industry players to manage their bottom line in a new payment landscape while capitalizing on new growth potential.
3. Those who seize the AI opportunity and embrace these applications to deliver high-quality, cost-effective care will be the ones to leapfrog competitors.

“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next 10” — Bill Gates.

IT solutions for healthcare are one of the most successful stories of our times. The demand is driven by a combination of different factors such as pandemics, global population growth, and aging, climate changes, continually evolving patients’ needs, changing lifestyles, and the never-ending cycle of innovations.

The global healthcare system will need to shift to long-term care management and care-based approaches. It’s caused by population aging trends: by 2050, one in four people in Europe and North America will be over the age of 65. This means that the healthcare ecosystem will face complex needs and more expensive care.

Without radical digital transformational change, the healthcare system will lose its sustainability, and healthcare spending will simply not keep up. AI is getting increasingly sophisticated at doing what the health-sector workforce does. But more efficiently, more quickly and at a lower cost. According to the World Health Organization, by 2030, the global industry can create 40 million new jobs, and this is a huge potential for AI growth too.

Explosive Growth of AI

AI has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare sector and help address some of the challenges we consider in this article too. Today, there are at least six core areas where AI is already having an impact:

• Care delivery;
• Chronic care management;
• Self-care, prevention, wellness;
• Triage and diagnosis;
• Diagnostics;
• Clinical decision support.

These six areas have a direct impact on the healthcare value chain, including improving population health management, improving operations, and straightening innovation. With immense power to unleash improvements in cost, quality, and access, AI is gaining its momentum and becoming an extremely popular technology in the industry. By 2021, the AI health market is expected to reach $6.6 billion.

In just the next five years, the health AI market will grow more than 10x.

We can only imagine a future in which population-level data from wearables and implants change our understanding of human biology. Moreover, real-life digital treatment is already a new norm, shaping the long-term implication and healthcare approaches for many years to come.

The current spread of Covid-19 is the freshest example of this. The lockdown is stretching operational systems in healthcare and beyond. We have seen shortages of everything, from masks and gloves to ventilators, and from emergency room capacity to ICU beds to the speed and reliability of internet connectivity. Lots of patients tend to seek medical help online and through the device-based frames. We’re going to witness more examples in the foreseen future.

The Four Groups of AI Use Cases Today

To have a closer look at the high potential for scale, the impact, the possibilities, and the bottlenecks of AI use cases in healthcare, we grouped them in four logical categories:

1. AI-enabled population health;
2. Patient virtual health assistant;
3. Frontline health worker (FHW) virtual health assistant;
4. Physician clinical decision support tools.

The AI-enabled population health stands for analyzing and providing recommendations on residents’ health data. This includes surveillance and prediction, risk management, intervention targeting, and selection.

The second category, patient virtual health assistant, has the potential to assist people in directing their own care and wellness, including self-referral, data-driven diagnostics, care recommendations, behavior change, etc.

Considering FHW virtual health assistant, AI-facilitated care is probably one of the essential components here. It helps FHW to make data-driven decisions, track behavioral changes, set diagnosis, lead medical records, and personalize outreach.

The last group stands for providing more specialized expertise to generalist physicians. Image-based diagnosis, clinical decision support, QA, and training are just a few examples of its realization.

No More Science Fiction

AI represents a significant opportunity for industry players to manage their bottom line in a new payment landscape while capitalizing on new growth potential. The top three applications that represent the highest potential and near-term value are:

1. Robot-assisted surgery ($40 billion);
2. Virtual nursing assistants ($20 billion);
3. Administrative assistance ($18 billion).

10 AI Applications With the Highest Potential in Healthcare

AI-Assisted Surgeries

Robot-assisted surgery can determine information from previous scientific documents and integrate it with real-time operating metrics to physically guide and enhance the physician’s instrument precision. The AI-assisted surgical procedure is also acknowledged as “minimally invasive surgery,” which minimizes chance elements with the aid of streamlining a subculture of innovation and entrepreneurship.

The recent advancements in AI have spurred healthcare carriers and pharmaceutical organizations to deploy the technological know-how and beautify their operations. The investments have yielded widespread fee cuts and extended outcomes. Robotics outcomes include a 21% reduction in length of stay. The value will only increase with the development of robotic solutions for a greater diversity of surgeries.

Boosting Nursing Efficiency

The virtual nursing assistant is another frontrunner of AI disruption in healthcare. No more hospital visits, or almost no more, because the AI solutions can remotely assess a person’s symptoms and deliver necessary alerts to doctors when medical care is needed.

As virtual nursing assistants become accustomed to patient diagnoses and conditions, their abilities will grow beyond effective triage into expertise and recommendations around patient treatment.

Saving Time and Reducing Administrative Errors

One of the most challenging aspects of the healthcare zone is the lack of time to adjust administrative support. AI systems have the potential to assist reduce time and effort for administrative workflow capabilities.

For example, voice-to-text transcription, eliminating non-patient care activities including writing chart notes, prescriptions and ordering tests. AI systems are developed to empower medical personnel to furnish a greater stage of care by helping them with compliance in every step of the process.

Better Care, On Your Terms

AI is here. From medical lookup to health center care, drug development, and insurance, statistics management by using AI functions radically changes the health sector to minimize expenditure and facilitate patient outcomes. And those who seize the AI opportunity and embrace these applications to deliver high-quality, cost-effective care will be the ones to leapfrog competitors.

But it’s a long and complex journey which no single organization should take alone. We, at Intellectsoft, empower companies and their workforces with transformational solutions and approaches to help them strive and succeed in constantly evolving normal. Are you and your organization looking for it? 

Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business can start benefiting from it today!

The post The ABCs of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare in 2020 appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Summary:

1. Healthcare
2. E-commerce and Online Shopping
3. Entertainment
4. Restaurants and Food delivery
5. IT & Tech Industry
6. Construction
7. Hospitality
8. FinTech
9. Sensing and Shaping the Post-COVID Era

Today, for the global sectors, COVID-19 presents two challenges: largely idled sectors disrupting trade and reduced demand from consumers. A few examples to consider, Chile is reeling from reduced copper demand. Germany — from auto parts shortage.

In this article, we examine how different industries react to business and economic turbulence caused by the novel pandemic through innovation and digital capabilities. We discover this through the example of 8 industries that try to win over the battle using digital and innovation capabilities.

Healthcare

As each industry emerges from its acute response phase, many will find that they are entering a “new normal.” Expect the way healthcare is practiced and marketed to be no different.

Beyond the negative impact of a traditional economic downturn, COVID-19 presents additional challenges — fear from the virus itself, collective grief, prolonged physical distancing, and associated social isolation — that will compound the impact on our collective health.

Reported signs of distress related to COVID-19 in the US.

As the way healthcare is practiced evolves, so too will the environment and platforms through which that care is delivered. There will be new needs that emerge; new content will be needed, in new formats, manifesting in new marketing assets.

Digital Transformation in Healthcare and Other Solutions

There are three areas that healthcare marketing leaders should focus on, as the impact on their business and the subsequent need to adapt will be significant:

• Telehealth

The acceptance and utilization of telehealth services within the US were already on a sharp incline before the COVID-19 crisis erupted globally.  Since then, medical and municipal leaders are leveraging the platform as a tool in combating the spread of COVID-19, accelerating adoption in the process.

From a Payer perspective, CVS Health, Aetna, Cigna, and United Health are just a few of the payer organizations recommending patients move to virtual care – going so far as to waive copays for utilizing the service.

Consumers are showing increased interest as well, with SEMRush reporting a 146.15% increase in searches for “in-home doctor visits” and a 53.97% increase in “in-home medical care” searches.

• Urgent care

Urgent Care Centers are quickly becoming the front door in a person’s treatment journey.  A study from the Urgent Care Association found that a median of 35% of patients utilizing UCCs do not have primary care physicians, reflecting the fact that Healthcare is shifting to much more of an on-demand service. Medicare and Medicaid patients made up almost 27% of UCC patients in 2018, confirming that the shift is not driven only by the young or affluent.

The organization is flanking the physical services with digital efforts, with  almost 30% of the landing pages on CVS.com Minute Clinic specific. Not to be outdone, Walmart launched the first of its augmented health facilities in September 2019.

• Almost everything goes online

Medical conferences and congresses are a huge priority for companies in the Health sector. These events are valued by commercial organizations, advocacy groups, and healthcare professionals as key opportunities for medical education, peer-to-peer engagement, and the release of official study data.

While some of those activities have been digitally distributed in parallel, a vast majority of that activity is face-to-face. The COVID-19 crisis is forcing digital transformation in IT solutions for healthcare industry to take new turns.

Intellectsoft Healthcare Solutions

Since healthcare and economic environments force medical experts to take extra shifts, this greatly affects their own quality and safety of life.

The idea behind Intellectsoft’s solution was to empower medical professionals with a simple tool that gives them flexibility, control, and more. We created an on-demand healthcare staffing solution consisting of two parts:

• iOS and Android app with an Uber-like feel (for the Nurse role);
• Web Admin Panel (for Hospital Administrator or Security Supervisor role).

Some of the most significant features included there are a nurse and hospital management, shift management, notification center, data export, etc. Solutions of this kind can be a major stride within the current time frames because they help doctors stay focused on more essential things and certain patients with reaching for treatments.

As consumers and organizations have no other choice, the COVID-19 crisis is accelerating the utilization of digital platforms. While there have been financial, behavioral, and attitudinal roadblocks to adoption in the past, the need to overcome the crisis is superseding those roadblocks and increases the number of first-time users.

E-commerce and Online Shopping

Today, as B2B digital transformation statistics say, online shopping is the fastest-growing slice of the pie, dominating the scene and continuing to invest in digital capabilities.

Traditional, smaller players are also eyeing the online scene. Many traditional small markets have taken to online channels to hawk products, conduct online auctions, and even to carry out customer relation-building, for example, passing tips on how to prepare dishes using their products.

However, most authorities are warning organizations to prepare for the long haul. Virtually every company involved in global trade feels the impact.

Digital Transformation in B2B E-commerce

Digitalization had swiftly come into B2B E-commerce sectors a long time ago. But since recent times the situation has drastically changed, the technologies and trends have changed too. Although some things remain untouchable. Still, most of the E-commerce sales are made through mobile devices (73%). Progressive Web App (PWA), with its native-app-like experience, is also here to stay.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, personalized customer experience, and predefined analytics — all complement an evolution of B2B consumerization. Data remains the primary fuel for accelerating the development of any organization involved in sales. Focusing on eternal questions: what data to collect and how to process it effectively remains unsolved even today. 

In response to social distancing, many businesses will make their E-commerce operations a key priority.

Solutions

Here is what we suggest you can do right now to mitigate the impact of coronavirus on your E-commerce business:

• Even as early digitalization investments are paying off, the current inability to fulfill delivery of online purchases suggests digitization efforts by businesses have only been focused at the customer-facing end. Supermarket chains should consider integrating their online shopping platforms with the stock-holding information of their physical branches.

• COVID-19 may accelerate the growth of the online grocery sector. People did not just flock to physical supermarkets, but also loaded virtual carts with groceries from online platforms. With government directives to allow workers to work-from-home and to avoid non-essential trips to shopping malls, this trend of online shopping is likely to persist.

• Another possibility is for online shopping platforms to partner with businesses that specialize in delivery fulfillment such as UberEats, Grab, Glovo, and Bolt Food. B2B digital transformation trends are another milestone companies should consider today.

Intellectsoft Solutions in E-commerce

Since 2012, we’ve specialized in custom E-commerce application development, building E-commerce platforms dedicated to client’s needs or modify existing solutions to help scale-up businesses. A multi-category E-commerce platform based on digital tokens is one of the most significant solutions we’ve developed before.

The solution includes a number of software systems released atop of the blockchain network to allow for a seamless experience in different stores. Multiple stores built on top of a shared blockchain network. Merchants can open their account without any extra effort and start selling goods or services for internal cryptocurrency. Customers can securely buy, transfer, and exchange online and offline goods while receiving loyalty points for future purchases.

Get in touch with our top minds to find out how your business can start benefiting from our innovative solution today!

Entertainment

Around the world, COVID-19 is having a marked impact on media supply, consumption, and advertising. Demand for content-streamed, live, and multi-layered — is skyrocketing while new content creation has been largely turned off.

Since cinema and amusement parks across the globe are all shut down for uncertain times, thousands of entertainment organizations suffer formidable losses and fail to receive any kind of income. The outbreak triggered online entertainment and how some companies are finding ways to engage differently with consumers and the new reality.

Digital Transformation in Entertainment

• Demand for all forms of media — TV programs, short-form video, music streaming, and online gaming, particularly in geographies currently under stay-home instructions, has surged. Digital transformation in entertainment is expecting more new turns in the foreseen future.
• The supply of new content may be limited to a few weeks for some formats (e.g., daytime dramas). New TV series currently being launched were completed prior to production sets shutting down.
• Network resiliency and capacity continues to be a focus, as the demand for content surges. In the European Union, streaming platforms are reducing video quality to ensure networks are not overwhelmed and that customers can still view content.
• While sports companies come to terms with a wave of cancellations, many are seeking new ways to reach their customers digitally. Many are looking to eSports or online simulated events to provide content to fans, with even professional athletes engaging in eSports competitions.
• Musicians are going online and relying on streaming platforms as live shows are canceled.

Intellectsoft Solutions in Entertainment

Our partnerships with comprehensive streaming TV, film, and sports apps and websites have brought our clients and us valuable experience and knowledge of this industry.

Our solution was a cloud-based, highly scalable elastic platform with advanced search and ingestion layers functionality to support a multi-million users base with a steep growth curve. Among the most significant benefits our client got were:

• Cloud scalability and elasticity;
• Fast users growth potential;
• Streamlined rich client application.

Restaurants and Food delivery

Despite some concerns, food delivery companies gain their momentum and become a popular option as people practice social distancing. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how much growth there has been in this sector, but higher demand has led to higher pricing in some areas. What more to expect?

Digital Transformation in Food Industry

Uber, for example, recently provided Uber-only drivers with information on adding Uber Eats food deliveries to their services. Within the first week, around 15% of Uber drivers had completed their first food delivery.

Fine dining establishments, small-town restaurants, and fast foods are now switching to offer delivery services to their customers. At the same time, restaurants that did not previously offer take-outs are now considering this option as never before. Some restaurants choose a third-party delivery service to partner with, and each offer comes with unique benefits.

Uber Eats and Deliveroo, among others, have launched contactless “leave at your door service” to help drivers and customers follow social distancing and quarantine rules.

In addition to understanding already in place strict food hygiene standards, consumers may also be interested to learn if the businesses have:

• New practices for social distancing in the kitchen or during delivery pickups;
• Policy for staff members who display symptoms of COVID-19;
• Changes in food delivery guidelines, such as containers that allow for easier disinfection or better customer experience.

Though it is uncertain where the digital transformation in food industry and the delivery trend will go in the post-COVID-19 era, many businesses are working as hard as they can to ensure they meet consumers’ expectations and remain relevant by providing an excellent service.

IT & Tech Industry

The effects of COVID-19 and are having a significant impact on the technology sector, too. However, the disruption has caused reevaluation on organizations’ business continuity plans (BCPs) as well as the acceleration of remote operations and online meetings. Let’s dive in to see what has changed more and what solutions organizations appeal to remain afloat.

Digital Transformation in IT and Other Solutions

• Companies with remote-working technologies already see increased demand as organizations accelerate their remote-working capabilities.
• Security software will see third-order benefits from a growing remote workforce. Organizations race to secure endpoints, cloud-based tools, log management, and VPNs. So, IT spending on security software will increase too.

• Due to enhanced remote work scenarios, IT digital transformation will play a larger role in future BCPs. Thus, CIOs and senior management will need to ensure a resilient, secure network, disaster recovery systems, and more devices for the ones working remotely.
• The need for ever-faster access to data and automation will drive the focus on network equipment and communications, speeding up 5G network and equipment introduction.
• An increase in the use of tele- and video-conferencing software as more companies encourage employees to commute.

Intellectsoft Business Continuity As Crisis Response

As a part of our Business Continuity Plan, within a couple of days, the global Intellectsoft team organized the smooth transition to remote operation without affecting any core systems and business processes to operate as usual during this period.

As we are always fully committed to continue providing our customers and partners with the products and services they depend on, our senior leadership team remains vigilant and is monitoring the situation in real-time to respond rapidly to continuous change.

Construction

Today, the most vulnerable industries are those lacking digitalization and tech maturity. The construction industry is one of them.

Creating $1.3 trillion worth of structures each year only in the USA, the construction industry remains one of the most under-digitized industrial sectors. Longer-term construction companies across the globe will have to contend with decreased demand as governments face rising deficits, and residential and commercial projects are dampened by unemployment and low GDP growth.

To stay one step ahead of the crisis, the sector requires a different approach to the overall strategy. Digital transformation in construction industry is a burning topic for both — senior management and government. What are the solutions construction companies have today?

Solutions

Today, key questions executives and boards should be asking are: do we need to rethink our company’s digital strategy to remain financially solvent, and how can we use technology to gain operational leverage. And the digital transformation in the construction industry becomes inevitable.

The importance of transformation in different types of construction departments.

Digital Transformation Construction Industry Solutions

The construction giant’s partnership with Intellectsoft has brought us tremendous experience and practical knowledge of this area. We have witnessed how modern technology could transform and improve further processes. It also carried the customer over to the next business development stage, ensuring the company’s end-to-end digital transformation.

We hope to see more and more construction companies implement innovations and disrupt digital transformation in the future, such as:

• Scheduling and resource management system & real-time reporting platform;
• Asset tracking and management system;
• Vendor ecosystem & compliance solution;
• Decision-making dashboard based on Big Data analytics.

Join us at our upcoming Construction webinar hosted by industry top minds on Thursday, April 23, at 12 p.m. Eastern time. 

Register for Webinar

Hospitality

Hospitality is taking proactive financial steps to mitigate the huge impact. It’s obvious today, both revenue and supply chains will be affected the most. Hotels, restaurants, theme parks, cinemas all went silent. The entire disruptive effect of the hospitality industry will have a significant, tremendous impact on the global hospitality industry and economy. And there is a question hangs heavy in the air — can digital transformation in hospitality industry change the rule of the game?

Solutions

Despite this, hospitality shows its maturity level: in working together, showing their true hospitality commitments in helping out our society where they can. Technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, connected devices, virtual and augmented realities are shaping the hospitality industry as we speak.

Only during the last two decades dozens of industry disruptors, such as Airbnb, Skyscanner, and TripAdvisor, have appeared on the market. Companies and organizations are expected to get out of the crisis more digitally mature, and those ones who find enough strength to focus on digitalization — are going to win the race. Here are some of the steps to consider today:

• “We may be apart, but we’ll get through this together,” says Airbnb experts introducing 50 new online experiences with unique activities for their customers. The home-sharing platform curates free online experiences to inspire people and stay afloat.

• Digital transformation in the hospitality industry should now be focused on those that we know are available to travel. The dramatic rise in online gambling during COVID-19 lockdowns is one of the results of current circumstances. The online gambling industry is one of the winners of the current shutdown, and some offline casinos and other organizations can consider this as a potential opportunity for future growth.

• Smart automation confidently moved into the industry through the Internet of Things technology. It has improved not only the convenience and comfort standards for clients but also reduced costs for businesses and organizations.

• Robots that handle food preparation and delivery, predictive analytics, and cloud storage — are the next big moves for automation in the industry.

While the COVID-19 shutdown has brought the industry to a standstill, it is also an opportunity for the companies to reevaluate their digital strategies and map out the right path ahead.

Intellectsoft Digital Transformation in Hospitality

From ordering concierge services in one tap to booking golf courses in less than a minute, our expertise in the Hospitality industry has an extensive history. Despite COVID-19, consumers continue to demand improved solutions and unique experiences. However, today the lockdown hit a stop button for most of the industry players.

During our long-term partnership with some of the key market players, we’ve witnessed that digital transformation remains one of the key drivers of industry growth today. Here are some of the solutions we’re proud to design for our clients:

• Turnkey solutions for the entire hotel;
• Internet of Things ecosystem that connects all amenities and guest services;
• Created an app that adapts to suit type;
• Comprehensive IT audit for software systems;
• Streamlined system, eliminating bugs, and making necessary improvements.

FinTech

Digital-only becomes the new industry norm in financial services, greatly accelerating a trend that started in the last decade. Digital transformation in FinTech triggers a “Big Pocket” battle between incumbents and challengers to win the (newly) online customer. Financial Institutions turn to Tech companies rather than in-house solutions to accelerate digital transformation.

Digital Transformation in FinTech

FinTech sector winners:

• Consumer and SME lending platforms: best-adapting mechanism to swiftly and efficiently deliver capital to key segments of the economy;
• Mortgage and life insurance digitalization: leaping forward with technology to disrupt the role of intermediaries, whose role was often face-to-face.

FinTech’ enablers’ around AI, IoT, and software solutions are in high demand:

• AI: bots for call-centers; account-opening procedures; loan automation;
• KYC: increased need for safe digital ID given volume of digital business transacted and robust solutions required for the protection of client assets.

Sensing and Shaping the Post-COVID Era

Crisis often leads to changes. This time is no exception. The shifts in social attitudes and behaviors we see today pave the broad path to new opportunities and ways of living and working. Some of which is here to stay with us in the long run. Some of which disappear right after the crisis is gone.

Crisis often leads to long-lasting changes. Source: BCG Henderson Institute.

Nevertheless, some changes show a positive dynamic. For example, we see a greater focus on crisis preparedness, system resilience, social inequality, social solidarity, and access to health care. These attitudinal shifts could, in turn, be reflected in significant policy shifts in many areas, including trade, border controls, health care, crisis preparedness, foreign affairs, employment, and social welfare.

This pandemic shapes new social norms and drives new social rules that humanity should get prepared for starting today. We, at Intellectsoft, empower companies and their workforces with innovation services and approaches to help them survive during these times. Are you and your organization looking for some? Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business can start benefiting from it today!

The post Digital Disruption: The Industries’ Way of Survival During the COVID-19 Crisis appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Digital transformation is, no doubt, one of the key drivers of industry growth today. But since the sudden COVID-19 pandemic outbreak hit the “pause button” hard-full stop, the hospitality industry especially is losing its positions day after day.

Nevertheless, consumers always continue to demand improved solutions and unique experiences. The industry is rapidly adopting new technologies to exceed their expectations and digitize the customer journey with one-tap check-ins, digital concierge services, voice-activated devices, chatbots, smart in-room technologies, advanced analytics, virtual-assistant platforms, enhanced direct bookings, and more to come.

Travel. Transformed.

Many companies from the hospitality industry are still only entering the new exciting world of digitalization. To create a more seamless guest experience, more hotels automate and streamline the travel processes, developing the advanced tools necessary to capture the full potential of data.

Moreover, considering that millennials are increasingly dominating the travel sector, hospitality companies should be prepared to curate and personalized travel offerings and to make a data-enabled transformation work. This generation of tech-savvy travelers prefers using apps for bookings and getting more personalized interactions. The cultural change, as well as the long-term impact of automation, machine learning, and even robotics, are here to stay.

Intellectsoft’s experts have developed an in-depth overview of digital transformation trends in hospitality and what to expect from hotels of the future presented in this infographics:

View full size

What’s next

Some things never change. Companies powered by data and advanced technologies will always be driven by people. Hospitality organizations are no different. They have to keep pace and grow into agile, reinvent themselves to become more relevant, and deliver engaging customer experiences.

Leaders have to bring to the fore some fundamental questions about values, cultural changes, privacy, and cybersecurity if they want to keep up with automation and machine learning solutions.

We empower companies and their hospitality workforce with tools like travel AI and chatbots, and data-driven insights to transform into intelligent operations. Are you and your organization ready to shift the mindsets and get the most out of innovations?

Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business or project can start benefiting from it today!

The post Hotels of the Future: Digital Transformation in Hospitality [Infographic]  appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

The medical sphere is the main field of investment in AI. Smart medical products, services, and processes are already being developed by companies such as IBM, Google, Apple, and many others.

What AI Is and Why It Is Important in Health Care

Broadly speaking, AI allows computers to learn from their experiences, adapt to set parameters, and perform tasks that used to be performed only by human beings. In most cases of AI implementation, from playing chess to driverless cars, developers must apply deep learning and natural language processing. These technologies make it possible to teach computers to perform certain tasks by processing enormous amounts of data and identifying patterns.

The medical sphere can already be considered one of the most promising in terms of AI usage. AI applications can massively improve the accuracy of diagnoses, simplify the lives of people who have various illnesses, and accelerate the production and release of novel drugs.

Today, doctors use numerous devices to facilitate diagnosis, monitor patients’ conditions, and perform surgical operations. However, it has recently become clear that AI is capable of many other things. For example, social media can help determine the dangers that threaten a person’s health.

The greatest achievement of AI in health care is connected to the collection and storage of data. For instance, electronic medical records (EMRs) store all data about a patient’s illness, the services provided, and other medical documents. However, the EMR market is controlled by a very small group of companies, and the programs themselves can’t be called flawless. The people who use them are irritated by pop-ups.

Also, robots that assist in performing operations are not science fiction anymore. In 2000, Intuitive Surgical released the Da Vinci surgical system, which was able to perform coronary bypass surgery. After a large investment, it was also taught how to remove prostate cancer.

Although AI is becoming more and more proficient, doctors still spend a lot of time communicating with patients and conducting diagnostics, but it is believed that in the future, they will only control this process, reducing the workload of therapists. Many of them already use special applications and other tools.

Let’s take a closer look at some examples of AI in health care.

How AI Is Implemented In Health Care: Examples Of Devices and Other Novel Technology

1. Thoroughly Process Patient Data

For competent treatment and accurate diagnoses, doctors must study patient data: pictures, test results, examination protocols, and anamnesis containing complete information. Sometimes, even experienced doctors are not able to see the full picture because the data is not systematized.

According to Google Labs, one in ten patients suffers because of an incorrect diagnosis. It is believed that AI can solve this problem. Google’s specialists are already working in some hospitals, where the Google Deepmind Health program analyzes the available information about patients’ symptoms and provides a list of recommendations. The doctor, using the tips from the system, prescribes a course of treatment. The IBM Watson Health program also allows users to make diagnoses; it can recognize cardiomyopathy, thrombosis, heart attacks.

Thanks to AI, it’s possible to assess the impact of drugs on the human body, helping doctors understand how the unique features of the patient’s genetic structure affect the course of the disease and what effect a new drug can have. With the help of the IBM Watson Health Cloud app, the doctor receives and analyzes data about the patient’s body from an electronic bracelet and can then select an effective course of treatment.

2. Diagnostics

Nowadays, AI can recognize the symptoms of malignant neoplasms to diagnose visual disorders, tuberculosis, and brain disorders. An example is the Ada service. This mobile app generates questions, and then the user describes their symptoms, after which Ada searches for information about the problem and gives recommendations. Similar services can indicate diseases, including diabetes. For instance, a special application called Sense.ly has been developed for the people who have recently been to the hospital. It analyzes the user’s health status in real-time and then sends this data to the therapist.

Novel technology such as genetic analysis is gaining popularity as DNA analysis makes it possible to identify a person’s predisposition to certain diseases, such as diabetes, stomach ulcers, and more. Furthermore, one project, MedClueRx, allows users to determine which medications can help with depression, epilepsy, and diseases of the nervous system.

We can’t help but mention a service that can replace a personal doctor. MedWhat AI is a mobile phone app with a built-in speech recognition function. The app takes an interest in the user’s health and answers various questions, such as how to get rid of a headache.

In the near future, MedWhat will grant access to patients’ medical history and genetic information.

3. Processing Huge Amounts Of Information

It’s a well-known fact that AI can process several thousand pages per second when searching for the necessary information. Every twenty minutes or so, a new medical article appears in the world. Therefore, an AI-based decision support system, CDSS, was created to help medical workers. It combines information and data on patients’ health indicators and their medical history.

4. The Creation Of Drugs

Drugs are complex organic compounds, and finding the right structure takes a long time. Before getting to the market, a drug goes through many checks and tests, but that does not guarantee that the drug will be effective. More than 50% of new cancer drugs do not have a noticeable effect on the patient.

AI is designed to more accurately model the composition of drugs. In the future, researchers will be able to set the necessary functions, and AI will form the chemical structure of the drug. Even today, a service called Atomwise uses AI to find the optimal drug formula.

Powerful Advantages Of AI In The Healthcare Industry

Scientists hope that with the help of AI, it will soon be possible to develop ultra-precise (or precision) medicine and assign individualized treatment to each patient, taking into account unique genetic and other features. The US has already announced the launch of the first projects for the development of precision medicine.

Medical and technological advances over the last 50 years have allowed us to bring health care to a new level.

New AI applications and systems have a number of undeniable advantages:

• Increased computing power, leading to faster data collection and processing
• Increased volume and availability of health-related data obtained from doctors’ and patients’ personal and medical devices
• Increased genomic sequencing databases
• Introduction of electronic medical records.

Why AI Implementation In Health Care May Turn Out Complicated

Unfortunately, there are several obstacles to the introduction of AI technologies in medicine. Questions often arise from medical professionals themselves, who have a reasonable distrust of some innovations.

What is the cause of the problems? Let’s try to understand.

The main barrier to the future of AI in medicine is ensuring data privacy and security. With AI, there is a risk of revealing confidential data from patients’ medical history. Moreover, there is the risk of deliberate hacking to harm a huge number of people by, for example, causing insulin overdoses in people with diabetes.

The second problem is the inaccurate operation of the algorithms. A recent example is the IBM Watson Health algorithm (known as Watson for Oncology). The algorithm is used by hundreds of hospitals around the world to recommend treatment for cancer patients, but it was based on a small number of synthetic cases and a very limited amount of real data. Many of its treatment recommendations were wrong. For example, it suggested the use of an incompatible medication for a patient with severe bleeding, which is a clear contraindication.

Another problem is bias. Low socioeconomic status is the main risk factor for premature mortality. The disproportionate use of AI for the rich while the poor can’t afford it can increase the existing health gap. The resulting bias due to the lack of inclusion of minorities in data sets is closely related to this problem. For instance, some algorithms in dermatology diagnose melanoma, but they do not take into account skin color. It is necessary to eliminate prejudice and seek medical research that provides a real representation of the population.

How AI Will Transform Health Care In The Future

Medical futurist Bertalan Mesko once said that AI is the stethoscope of the 21st century. He noted that a simple instrument like a stethoscope was something the medical community did not want to recognize at first. It took several decades for doctors to start using it. The same thing is happening now with AI—one tries to make the most of it while another is afraid of it.

AI technologies, machine learning, and neural networks simplify the lives of doctors greatly. Innovations in medicine make it possible to diagnose diseases more accurately, find medicines faster, and track the condition of patients. An impressive number of novel technologies are being developed now, and more are yet to come! Let’s look at some of them:

• Google is working on creating an algorithm that will analyze EMR data and find important patterns. The technology will help doctors predict the development of the patients’ conditions and will tell how long patients should stay in the hospital, as well as calculate the probability of death.

• Microsoft is using AI to develop cancer drugs and treatments. The project includes a mathematical analysis of cell development. The main idea is to apply to malignant cells the same method of struggle as to failures in computer programs. [MG1] The company also created a public service called Microsoft Healthcare Bot, which offers to use medical institutions in the development of virtual assistants and chatbots to solve various medical problems.
• IBM is developing AI-based systems in the field of cancer treatment and has already spent more than $4 billion to buy several companies with huge reserves of medical data. The Watson Group, whose technology IBM plans to adapt for health care, was created in early 2014 and now employs about 10,000 people. The main task of Watson is to understand questions formulated in natural language and find answers to them with the help of AI.
• Medtronic and IBM are jointly developing an application to monitor the treatment of people with diabetes. Software Sugar.IQ is a smart assistant for diabetes that will be able to predict critical decreases in blood sugar three hours before the patient shows symptoms. Data from 600 anonymous patients was used to create the technology. People can track their condition using a mobile app and special medical devices.
• Intel is developing AI-based programs that can identify patients at risk for dangerous diseases and offer treatment options.

This list is only a small part of the opportunities that AI has brought to the healthcare sector.

The post How AI Is Transforming The Modern Healthcare System appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

In this article, we will make projections across 5 technology areas:

• AI algorithms in fake news and the future of media
• The not-so-comfortable truth about the state of AR & VR adoption 
• Endpoint growth, edge computing, and other IoT industry trends
• Financial organizations embracing a shared ecosystem
• First steps of face recognition technology in financial services

There are many interesting developments to talk about. Let’s start.

AI Trends: Algorithms in Media & Fake News

The media industry has already seen AI-driven virtual TV presenters in action. The technology paves the way for a potential revolution in the industry, allowing media companies to produce a lot of content on-the-fly.

Still, over the last two years, the public, the media, governmental organizations, and prominent artists have grown increasingly alarmed about how deepfakes can sway opinions online, influencing political events. In 2017, the University of Washington created the notorious deepfake video of President Barack Obama, there was a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a deepfake video of Mark Zuckerberg, and other examples. The resemblance between the real and fake political figures proved almost uncanny, prompting discussions about the big perils of deepfake technology and other AI uses. 

Today, doctored videos can be spotted upon closer examination, but the technology keeps evolving, while easy-to-use deepfake creation tools are available online. Although current countermeasures can detect deepfakes and their creators quickly and easily, this may change soon: the technology is evolving, so the countermeasures will need to evolve as well. 

Fighting fake articles online will be more challenging, though. MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has been going to great lengths to showcase the scale of the problem. CSAIL has conducted two scientific investigations (publishing a paper for each in the August of 2019), and both showed that current AI-driven fake news detecting systems, no matter how sophisticated, are not effective enough and face many nuanced challenges.

With other companies joining the battle, (including Facebook), this means that we will definitely see more sophisticated AI tools aimed at reducing the quantity and impact of fake news in 2020 and beyond, across the board. 

The laws will follow suit as well. In 2020, we may expect new deepfake and fake news scandals, hearings on that cases, as well as first instances of comprehensive regulation in the most progressive countries. All popular platforms would use AI algorithms to automatically detect and block deepfakes and fake news, as well as trace their creators.

All in all, trends in AI will be a hot topic in 2020.

Augmented & Virtual Reality Trends Slow Down

Although established companies use AR in manufacturing, building construction, retail, and other industries, the general adoption progresses slowly. Games and gamified customer experiences continue to be the main driver for both AR and VR. 

According to a survey by XRDC, fifty-nine percent of AR and VR projects are game-related. This won’t change anytime soon, at least for VR. Steam will be pushing its SteamVR platform with the recently announced Half-Life: Alyx, driving the competition on the VR market. Still, the adoption of both technologies continues to grow steadily in other industries, like education and training. 

As AR has been growing slowly in the last two years, there is no indication this will change in 2020, despite the release of HoloLens 2 in November 2019. There is the usual back-and-forth in the rumours about Apple’s AR headset, but hard evidence on whatever the company is developing will are non-existent. 

Still, we can expect AR to continue breathing new life into familiar experiences. Readers tired of consuming content the old way will definitely enjoy immersive experiences and new story angles enabled by the technology, like those seen in The New York Times AR/VR section and by TIME’s new AR/VR app. 

As for other augmented reality trends, the technology will also help ecommerce drive sales in 2020 and beyond. As customers are tired of the same types of ads and their ubiquity, brands will follow into the steps of Instagram (who released its Spark AR Studio to public this year), building AR catalogues of their goods and creating digital experiences with AR lenses in mind. 

AR lenses and filters are booming, but they should be approached carefully by development teams in the future. For example, Instagram removed filters that depict or promote cosmetic surgery amid concerns they harm mental health.

AR try-in on web pages and in mobile apps would also gain more traction. This option is more cost-effective compared to other AR solutions as well as convenient for users, who would only need to open the camera on their smartphone to try a T-shirt or sunglasses on. 

According to a study published by four UK universities, AR improves decision comfort, prompts users to give positive word-of-mouth recommendations, and drives sales of more expensive products.  

The big-scale adoption of AR will continue in 2020 with products like Adobe’s Aero, which allows designers to create AR experience without coding easily. The iPad app gives users a step-by-step guide on how to build AR scenes, allowing them to use their existing assets from the Adobe Creative Cloud. The app allows to create basic AR experiences, with the full-fledged version coming to desktop in 2020. 

Internet of Things — Adoption Continues  

Most of the IoT industry trends are connected to streamlining existing IoT-driven operations further, sustating IoT device growth, and building massive ecosystems.

Tapping into IoT Metadata

For the last decade, enterprises have been gathering and using data from smart endpoint devices in their IoT ecosystems to a great extent. The next step will be using that data’s metadata to drive intelligence systems, increasing the level of personalization further, and giving context to otherwise incomprehensive scenarios in data sets. As a result, the companies will be able to structure unstructured data and improve the process of developing their cognitive systems.

Confident Endpoint Growth

Staying on the subject of endpoints, their number will grow in 2020, as devices like smart meters, smart lighting, and smart air conditioning are becoming increasingly common in commercial and residential markets. According to Gartner, the utilities industry, who is the leader in endpoint usage, was operating 1.17 billion endpoints in 2019, and the firm projects the number will grow by 14.6 percent in 2020, reaching 1.37 billion. 

Still, the governmental sector will see a more dramatic spike: from 0.53 billion to 0.70 billion (24.3 percent). The quantity of endpoints will also grow substantially in the building automation and physical security industries. 

Other Internet of Things Trends: Edge Computing, Digital Twins

What else can be expected in the IoT area in 2020? According to IDC, enterprises will begin transitioning from cloud-based IoT deployments to edge computing to further streamline IoT deployments and application performance in their ecosystems. 

As for big trends in IoT, the Port of Rotterdam, the largest in Europe, has started a massive project of digitizing its every operation, which will continue in 2020. Some parts of the harbor are already automated, but the ports leadership and partners plan to use the digital twin technology and IoT for a complete digital transformation. The end goal is to entirely rid the port of time loss, cargo loss, spills of CO2, and safety incidents. The harbor also wants to berth crewless automated ships somewhere around 2030. 

Learn more about the port’s plans and progress in detail in the video:

Open & Decentralized Finance

In all likelihood, 2020 will be a watermark year for banks and financial institutions, as they face the inevitability of a large-scale transformation. The concept of open finance — an ecosystem of shared services that converges users and companies in one place to enable better efficiency and experiences — will be the overarching trend. 

This means that financial organizations will have shared transaction data, IT infrastructure, and cross-compatible systems, while the ecosystem itself will be enabled by distributed technologies and more sophisticated and accessible APIs. 

Distributed technology will play a key role in the evolution of the entire industry, giving way to decentralized financial services: lending, borrowing, and other financial operations will be provided on decentralized distributed platforms. Banks will use distributed ledgers to issue bonds (like Societe Generale and Santander did), as digital markets with tokenized financial instruments will emerge. Payments, meanwhile, will be transferred to permission-based distributed networks to enable high security and speed.  

Face Recognition in Financial Services

As facial recognition is available in more and more smartphones and can help financial organizations cut costs and simplify operations and customer experiences, we can expect more financial services that use face recognition at different customer touchpoints. 

Users will be able to verify different actions related to their accounts in seconds by letting smartphones scan their faces. Still, this will require a high level of security from both the financial institutions, smartphone designers, and software teams behind mobile operating systems.

The concept of a federated identity — using your face to manage all of your financial operations — is also on the table, but it will take time to evolve. Mexico has already adopted a biometric security mandate to bring this idea to life, so we can probably expect other countries to follow suit in 2020.

Summing Up Technology Trends for 2020

Although major breakthroughs are not in the cards, 2020 will be yet another eventful year for the tech industry and the world. AI will play the most important role at the both sides of the fake news war in 2020, prompting governments to come up with never-before-seen laws. AR adoption has slowed down significantly, and this may continue until Apple releases its first AR device. IoT adoption continues, as companies across industries tap into new types of data, use more endpoints, and find ways to streamline deployments; massive IoT projects like digitization of the Port of Rotterdam are also underway. With no time left to postpone transformation, financial organizations embrace modern times with big plans for setting up shared systems to deliver next-gen user experiences. Finally, face recognition is slowly coming to financial operations. 

It’s still going to be exciting. Stay tuned.

The post 5 Tech Trends of 2020 Every CIO Needs to Know appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.