Digital Health: Then, Now, and Tomorrow

The healthcare sector is reinventing itself with technological developments to meet the rising demands of new-age health issues.

FREMONT, CA: With the development of digital technology and its accelerated advancement over the past few decades, almost every area of human endeavor has experienced extraordinary changes due to the development of this technology. Applying mechanical and digital recording and capturing physical status, experiences, and narratives have set the stage for revolutionary progress in individual health and medical management, population-wide health strategies, and integrated real-time generation of new knowledge and insights.

This is an active area of speculation, including the implications for human health, about the future positive and negative effects of these changes.

Health, medicine, and biomedical science are being transformed by revolutionary advances in digital health, which redefine and reengineer the required tools to overcome the challenges of creating a better health care system. The development of new technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, digitally mediated diagnostics and treatments, telehealth, and consumer-facing mobile health applications are now routinely being used in the self-management of people with chronic diseases, in health care, and in biomedical research. 

These developments are expected to facilitate patient engagement, better outcomes, and earlier diagnoses. A fundamental principle of digital health is its ability to capture and process data electronically and provide technical and communication infrastructures and applications to the health care ecosystem.

In spite of progress toward interoperability and advances in technology to coordinate care and manage the disease, the promise of digital health remains illusory, despite significant investments made by payers, providers, and the federal government in electronic health records. It is still substantially theoretical whether interoperable digital technology can improve effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and continuity of care. 

As we live in an era characterized by the proliferation of digital technologies, regardless of the particular challenges that present themselves to the development and promotion of health, digital health is capable of acting as a "force multiplier" to help us to overcome these challenges. There is a growing trend among innovators, software vendors, payers, and government regulators to invest heavily in digital health solutions that will help diagnose and treat patients, with a special focus on needy, high-cost population groups.