Overview of Technology in the Pharmacy Industry 4/25/2016
Going Up: Health Care Industry Overview
- US consumer prices for medical care commodities, an indicator of healthcare costs, increased 2.4% in March 2016.
- US consumer prices for medical care services, an indicator of profitability for healthcare services, rose 3.6% in March 2016.
Trends, Opportunities, & Challenges
Role of Health Information Technology (HIT)
- Advances such as electronic health records, telemedicine and predictive analytics is transforming the way health care stakeholders interact. Digital innovations like artificial intelligence, diagnostic devices and wearables are helping to facilitate new diagnostic and treatment options, increase process efficiency, and reduce costs. *Deloitte
- The US government has put financial incentives in place to encourage the adoption of HIT as a way to ultimately improve medical care and lower costs. However, hospitals have found that development of HIT is complex and expensive and may outweigh eventual cost savings. *Hoovers
Patients Embrace Technology
- In 2014 more and more consumers began to embrace technology to communicate with clinicians. The following HRI Consumer Survey stats report on people who responded that they would be ‘very willing’ or ‘somewhat willing’ to communicate with their doctor, nurse or caregiver in the following ways
69% email
49% online chat or web portal45% text message
40% mobile application
- The same HRI survey reported that in 2013 16% of those surveyed had at least one medical, health or fitness app on their mobile device. However, that number doubled by 2015 to 32%.
To learn more about this event, contact Michael Castillo, the Senior VP of Pharmacy & Medical at mcastillo@ECRM.MarketGate.com
