Connected medical devices, such as step trackers and heart rate monitors, are becoming more common in healthcare. Telehealth services and products are helping to connect providers with patients, and are incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate clinical workflows.
Due to a lack of healthcare providers and high costs, many healthcare providers are using telehealth technologies to connect with patients. These technologies include live video calls, remote monitoring of patients, and mobile health, which allows patients to share health information through their mobile devices.
In 2017, 75% of healthcare providers were providing or planning to provide telehealth services, and more than half of them were actively expanding their telehealth systems. This is much higher than the 13% of providers who expected their patients to use telemedicine in 2014.
In order to get patient data into records and databases, the government and telecommunication companies need to work together. At the 2018 Connected Health Conference in Boston, four different telehealth-related technologies were showcased.