11.09.2024Health alliance reveals top five healthcare tech trends 

A new report from the National Industry Innovation Network (NIIN) Health Alliance reveals the five most significant health tech developments – and invites organisations to collaborate on progressing these initiatives.

The NIIN Health Alliance is led by the RMIT-Cisco Health Transformation Lab, a collaboration between Committee for Melbourne member RMIT and industry partners.

Its newly released Health x Digital Transformation Report 2024-2025 gathers data from almost 10,000 journal articles and trends reports – including from Forbes, MIT, CSIRO and Google – to identify the five most significant technological trends and the potential for each to redefine health systems.

The report also outlines proven applications in health and offers a clear roadmap for actionable change in the next 12 months.

While artificial intelligence (AI) was the most talked about trend in 2024, and one that could impact every part of health, the report identifies five areas of health technology innovation which can have a near-future impact on healthcare globally:

1. Augmented Intelligences: the deployment of AI and machine learning to make healthcare genuinely smart.
2. Simulation and simulacra: using digital replicas and simulation technologies – such as virtual reality, augmented reality, digital twins and 3D printing – to hack the real world.
3. Remote patient care: leveraging digital means to provide care that meets the patient where they need it.
4. Health system adaptability and dynamism: technologies that foster system resilience and adaptability in times of rapid change.
5. Harnessing biotechnology breakthroughs: building the future of healthcare through truly exciting science and technology development.

Other advances, such as quantum computing and blockchain, were excluded from the report due to not being readily actioned in healthcare settings over 2024-2025.

NIIN brings together industry, university and government partners to drive digital technology advancements in economy and society and address healthcare challenges. The RMIT-Cisco Health Transformation Lab gathers Australian and global health and innovation leaders to address system reform, transformation, technology and value.

Building from this report, the NIIN Health Alliance invites organisations across health, technology, research and policy to collaborate on health transformation solutions and actively progress a range of health technology initiatives.

RMIT-Cisco Health Transformation Lab Executive Chair Professor Vishaal Kishore said the team will be working directly with people and organisations in health, technology, research and policy to drive action off the back of this report.

“Health has always been a creature of technological change. Tectonic shifts in technology have always made new modes and models of care possible. What has changed has been the pace of technology change, and the pressures on the health sector to keep up.

“There are good reasons why change at times must be cautious, but we’ve seen during the pandemic that change can – and at times, must – be sped up.”

RMIT-Cisco Health Transformation Lab Director Nithya Solomon said the health sector can often be uncertain on which technologies could make the most impact and how to take the next step, with the report helping to outline these factors.

“It covers a range of areas in which organisations and government can work towards integrating transformative technologies, from training skilled workers, to funding, to building secure data infrastructure, to building a digitisation roadmap.”

NIINs will present the report at the Singapore NIIN Health Alliance Summit 2024 in October, which will bring together digital health thought leaders from across the region.

Stakeholders interested in partnering with the the NIIN Health Alliance can enquire via the alliance’s website.