Healthcare devices are selling fast, indoor exercises were never such a trend, and we never heard of alcohol companies making sanitizers. This pandemic has produced a massive wave of anxiety and awareness across the whole world that has given a new boost to innovation in healthcare technology. Since the outbreak of COVID—19 from Wuhan, we have witnessed the constant focus of leaders and entrepreneurs on one objective — devising measures to counter this pandemic.
COVID—19 has put extraordinary pressure on the governments across the globe to innovate and come with remedies to inhibit it. Till this article was being written, the total cases worldwide stand at a whopping 1,511,104 with 87,984 confirmed deaths. 9 out of 10 cases are coming only from four nations, forcing policymakers to detect the appropriate response as per their scenarios.
An eatery in Los Angeles is checking people’s temperature with a non-disruptive thermometer equipped with infrared, to let them enter. A hotel in Texas is using the microbe-eating robot to sterilize its premises. We are living in extraordinarily testing times, when the war against the spread of COVID—19 needs to be fought by fast-tracked telemedicine and healthcare gadgets to the front lines. Furthermore, the anxiety of infection has speeded up the acceptance of wearables and apps as a necessity to have a feel of incremented protection. And, Chinese police have deployed fancy-looking helmets that seem to emerge right from cyberpunk superhero films, fitted with artificial intelligence to detect people having fever from a distance of 16 feet.
Healthcare providers, as well as end-users, have started to realize the benefits of using healthcare gadgets. This trend is expected to be followed for long, even after this outbreak reduces. Gathering precise status regarding blood pressure, temperature, and other vital signals would restore control and a sense of safety among people. Therefore, it is important to fast-track implementation of healthcare, especially in regions where the pandemic has taken a significant toll.
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Let’s have a look at some of the significant inventions that are gaining visibility.
Withings Thermo: Not Your Typical Heart Rate Monitor
By keeping track of your body temperature, you can easily discover a viral infection without having to see a doctor. While on the go or through the times of coronavirus, accessing a doctor is very difficult. At such a challenging period, a healthcare gadget that can help track the emerging symptoms suddenly becomes a thing of prime importance. Withing’s Thermo is not anything like a regular thermometer or a typical heart rate monitor, but this device can measure 4000 temperature readings in 2 seconds. Fitted with 16 infrared sensors that can do all measurements with absolute accuracy. It could prove beneficial during the times of viral pandemic looming over us. Every stat is then synchronized with a mobile-based application to be accessed anytime, anywhere. You can gauge the peaking sales by the fact that its inventory has vanished two weeks before, with no chance of new stock appearing before the mid of April.
Tyto: On-Demand Medical Examination
Doctors in Israel have started using a consumer healthcare gadget known as Tyto that helps to monitor people’s health from far off distances. The chief medical officer of Sheba Medical Center in Israel, Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, was instrumental in bringing this device to the board. He realized it very early that Israel needs innovative technology for remotely monitoring people living in quarantine. His team is using this device to provide treatment to a dozen people that contacted the virus on Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. He testifies that Tyto has provided exceptional clinic-quality comprehension into the health conditions of the patients. By remote patient monitoring and caregiving provided by Tyco, not just the medical staff becomes immune to the spread, but it also counters its dissemination in public.
Remote Patient Monitoring Apps
A decade has passed since the telemedicine applications connecting doctors and patients have been with us. However, it is only during the times of COVID-19 that they are getting pushed to the forefront of medicare. The federal government has decided that it would waive some regulations for easing the connection between doctors and patients over telehealth apps. Nearly every medical institution in the United States is pushing the usage of telehealth apps to compensate for the personal visits to doctors to deal with this gross pandemic. Applications such as Amwell, Teladoc, HealthTap, Doctor on Demand have seen a huge rise in their usage all through the United States as they provide doctors on demand through their online offering of patient portals.
Youibot: Measurement Of Body Temperature By Robot
It took 18 days for Youibot Robotics Technologies Company to develop a human-resembling robot that can disinfect residential and commercial premises through ultraviolet radiation as well as take the measurement of body temperature of people passing by. The company came into being in the year 2017 and is expecting to sell more than 250 of these counter-epidemic robots this year. This would amount to doubling the entire revenue of the company from the previous year. Cody Zhang, the chief executive officer and the founder of Youibot Robotics, is optimistic of meeting the company’s sales target of US$ 9 million (70 million yuan) this year. The idea of a robot fighting the spread of infections is not new; however, the company seems to be ready to ramp-up its production of robotic devices in the emerging domain of coronavirus pandemic.
Beyond Hardware
Healthcare start-ups are trying to locate the statistical domains where they can mobilize the patients’ vital data to device technologies that can help lay a futuristic healthcare model. John Torous, an academic at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre at Harvard, is assimilating Google Fit and Apple Watch device data at an integrated offering, for letting patients seek advice from medics by a computer in real-time and disclose their quantifiable wellbeing statistics. John believes that the demand can only be met by wide-scale implementation and acceptance of telehealth technology. He is amongst the firmest supporters of a huge push in the direction of remote medication, accelerated by the swift dispersal of coronavirus.
Wrap Up
Healthcare is notably slow to implement innovative technologies in comparison to segments like retail or manufacturing, and it is often for a good rationale. On the top of that, there exist severe regulatory hurdles, and compensations are often mistreated, culminating in insurers’ hesitation to cover novel healthcare procedures. At the same time, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the limits of traditional methods and posed a severe challenge to the healthcare industry. IT is believed that these hurdles won’t be able to resist channels of innovative healthcare technology forever, particularly when, COVID-19 has accelerated a global shift of consumer behaviour towards digital solutions for healthcare communications.
Being a player in the telemedicine software domain, we are experiencing a heightened interest by digital startups, health systems, and venture firms wanting to optimize their healthcare market strategies, speed product design and development service at a significantly reduced cost, and position for funding.We don’t say that telehealth product development alone is a solution to better the healthcare, as it is dependent upon many factors. Nevertheless, deploying telemedicine practices during COVID—19 has shown to be of immense help to patients and healthcare organizations all over the world. As an experienced healthcare software development company in Ohio, we urge the governments to take fullest advantage to the benefit of humanity under the umbrella of data and privacy protection.
