Top trends in healthcare for 2022

The last two years have seen a shift in behaviours across a variety of sectors, and healthcare is no different. An industry that was midway through a mainly technological shift in behaviours has accelerated at a pace beyond initial expectations in several areas, with the pandemic playing its part in encouraging the adoption of new behaviours, and the desire to be safer in general.

In this article we will highlight some of the current and upcoming trends (and challenges!) in the industry and what they mean for the future of healthcare in the UK.

Telemedicine

The holistic shift towards digital technologies in general gave rise to telemedicine, and this was always going to be a game changer in the field; but COVID-19 has forced many providers and technologists to move at a change rate much faster than could possibly have been contemplated just a few years ago. 

Whilst caring for extremely vulnerable, disadvantaged and elderly populations is not without it’s significant challenges in this field; from now on, a growing number of patients will likely prefer access to healthcare without having to leave their home. 

For non-urgent situations, reducing the patient's requirement for a trip to the GP and/or A&E has it’s advantages, however the obvious benefit to healthcare providers (including the NHS) is much more obvious. Reductions in appointment delays will be seen, alongside the ability to see patients from anywhere / anytime. Will we begin to see a centralised handling of non-urgent GP appointments from the likes of NHS24, triaging the need for actual visits to the GP surgery? This is unlikely at the moment, but won’t be too far off given how much pressure the NHS is under from both a staffing and waiting times perspective.

Mental Health & Wellbeing

Already verging on a crisis within the NHS and the wider UK population before COVID-19 - funding for acute mental health was a political hot potato. Add in 2 years of restrictions, closures, lockdowns and behavioural changes - and the UK has another pandemic on its hands.

Statistics from the ONS revealed that depression rates have doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic began, forewarning of a growing mental health crisis in the UK. Particularly concerning is that those in more precarious economic positions or burdened by existing inequalities – young people, women, clinically vulnerable adults, disabled people and those living in the most deprived areas of the country – have been disproportionately affected. This suggests that inequalities in our society have worsened as a result of the pandemic. Despite increasing rates of depression, diagnoses by GPs fell by almost a quarter, suggesting access to mental health care is in decline.

The obvious need for the government and healthcare providers to act on this is plain to see - however technological innovation is already having a positive impact on this in some areas and we would expect to see this continue to grow. 

Could GP referrals to privately run Mental Health specialist programmes, Wellbeing & Mindfulness apps and online support communities be an obvious way to address the gap whilst government debates increased funding? It’s something we’re already seeing and expect it to grow.

Wearable health tech

The global wearable healthcare technology market is essentially devices that users wear on their body. Numerous features are now available - and with a rise globally in wearable tech for health & fitness, there are further developments in the future. Smartwatches and activity trackers like Fitbit are already well embedded into their markets, but further enhancements have come online from both the likes of Apple Watch and dedicated medical monitoring devices used to track serious chronic conditions such as diabetes and asthma.

By collecting a users wellbeing and fitness data and creating a longitudinal database of the users health metrics - the user can track that over time and challenge themselves to goals on health and fitness if they wish or perhaps have their data sent to the administrator for remote monitoring by a healthcare professional. 

The global market size here was around $30 Billion USD before COVID-19 but is now forecast to be worth an estimated $200 billion USD by 2027 - an incredibly fast rate of growth. By the time the end of this year comes around there will already be more than 1 billion wearable health tech devices owned around the world.

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