1. Healthcare’s big concern: Finding digital tech talent
In its Global Tech Report 2022, KPMG found that healthcare faces the greatest challenge in finding capable talent to help with the adoption of digital technologies. Of healthcare CIOs surveyed, 52 per cent identified that as a problem – more than any other sector.

2. Patient care remains key in AI strategy for health organisations
Capgemini’s AI for Health Digital Book surveyed organisations’ AI strategy and found that 68 per cent of respondents identified their top business priority as using AI as a lever to deliver better care for patients.

3. Industry sees widespread development of digital health solutions
Digital health and changing consumer expectations are reshaping the medical technology (MedTech) industry, according to Digital Health and MedTech – New Signals for Transformation, a report released by Accenture in November 2022. Of executives surveyed, 99 per cent said the development and commercialisation of digital health solutions has accelerated over the past two years.

4, MedTech sector saw double-digit revenue growth last year
The global MedTech industry saw record revenue growth of more than 16 percent from July 2021 through June 2022, according to EY’s 16th annual Pulse of the Industry report. But the sector faces new challenges as it emerges from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with concerns that include changing healthcare ecosystems, supply chain difficulties and geopolitical conflict.

5. Healthcare expected to invest big in AR/VR tech
Although consumer applications dominate spending on augmented reality and virtual reality, commercial investments in such technologies will see strong growth over the next five years, particularly in healthcare, telecommunications, government and utilities, according to a report released by IDC in November 2022.

6. Healthcare leaders worry about growing cyber attacks
In its November 2022 Pulse Survey, PwC found that 63 per cent of US healthcare executives are very concerned about broader and more frequent cyber attacks, compared to 52 per cent of executives across all industries. Health industry leaders also expressed concern about the higher cost of capital and a more active legislative and regulatory environment in the US.

7. Expect healthcare sector to become more discerning about IT spending choices
As they move beyond the initial disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers expect to become more focused on their IT investments and streamline their existing technology, according to the 2022 Healthcare Provider IT report from Bain & Co. Some 45 per cent of providers have stepped up their software investments over the past year and, of those, nearly 80 per cent say the reasons for that include labour shortages and inflation concerns.

8. Inflation, instability and overprescription is driving rising health costs
Global healthcare costs are expected to increase by 10 per cent in 2023 – the greatest rise in almost 15 years – according to a survey by Willis Towers Watson. Factors driving rising costs include inflation, economic instability, increased use of healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic and overuse of care (74 per cent) caused by medical professionals who overprescribe or recommend too many services.

9. Federated learning could reduce data privacy concerns in health research
In December 2022, Intel Labs and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania completed the largest to-date joint research study using federated learning. The study used distributed machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyse data from 71 institutions across six continents, and showed how to improve the rate of brain tumor detection by 33 per cent. Federated learning makes it possible to share data at scale without compromising patient health information.

10. Study: New strategies needed to avoid digital divide in health device usage
Digital devices are valuable for health research, but usage tends to drop off over the long term, according to a study published in December 2022 in the Nature journal npj Digital Medicine. The authors concluded, “Participants with lower educational levels, lower than excellent self-reported health, and higher depressive symptoms may benefit from additional support to enhance sustained device use. Self-disease management will be more prevalent in the future and to avoid a digital divide, various stakeholders need to focus on these groups who are at risk of attrition when developing strategies to improve engagement.”

Alice Larsson, Collective Content writer, also contributed to this post.