The world is a very different place than it was ten years ago, and nowhere is this more evident than in healthcare. The aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic, combined with the financial downturn and an acceleration in the adoption of technology and digitization, have dramatically changed the landscape for everyone, patient or practitioner. Here's my overview of what I believe will be the most important trends of the next 12 months: The market for Artificial intelligence (AI) – specifically, machine learning (ML) tools in healthcare is forecast to top $20 million in 2023. Various AI-aligned technologies, such as computer vision, natural language processing, and pattern recognition algorithms, are already deeply embedded in the healthcare ecosystem and will continue to be adopted as evidence of their usefulness grows throughout 2023. Some examples of areas where AI is used include drug discovery, where it can assist with predicting outcomes of clinical trials and potential side effects of new drugs, as well as analysis of medical imagery, which involves using computer vision algorithms to spot early warning signs of disease in x-rays or MRI scans.

For the past two years, our health and the healthcare industry have been at the front of our collective continuousness like at no time in recent memory. And as we move into 2022, technologies such as AI, wearables and new telehealth systems will play a significant role in helping us get and stay healthy. Dr. Michael Aragon, chief medical officer at Outset Medical, a medical device manufacturer, shared his top five 2022 trends for healthcare with TechRepublic, and technology was front and center. Wearables like the Apple Watch and Fitbit brought personal health tracking to the masses and in the past few years, the market has expanded dramatically to include a variety of in-home health teach that will monitor your blood pressure, heart rate, spO2, ECG, PPG, sleep quality and even neurological disorders. "This trend will continue to grow as individuals want the ability to have their health monitored without the need to visit their physician," Dr. Aragon said.

Morris Panner is President of Intelerad, a global leader in medical image management solutions. The most significant healthcare trends are rarely a flash in the pan. Instead, healthcare innovation -- with its significant risks, costs and regulations -- can take years to come to fruition. The pandemic ushered in a new wave of innovation in the healthcare industry, accelerating the pace of several trends that had been many years in the making. Changing patient preferences and digitization have been key drivers for advancing these trends.

The past two years have seen some of the biggest market disruptions for healthcare providers and organizations in living memory, which means every medical provider has a lot more information to sift through these days when it comes to picking out the best tech to invest in for their practices and patients. When you consider the surfeit of tech innovations, plus the massive additional workloads healthcare workers are dealing with due to the pandemic, it's easy to see how decision-makers in healthcare organizations can become overwhelmed. But independent practices and hospitals have to stay on the cutting edge if they want to provide the best possible care to their patients while ensuring their business also thrives. The pandemic reminded us that it's a dangerous game to try and predict with certainty what the future holds, but we can look to current healthcare trends to see what technologies may become the most widely adopted, beneficial, and necessary tools of the coming years. To that end, Gartner ran a global survey of 93 healthcare organizations with no more than 500 employees to understand their strategic planning around tech adoption (methodology below).

Nowadays, the healthcare sector is changing at a rapid pace. What once was a conventional industry that worked around many rounds of contact between doctor and patient almost always led to a shallow positive feeling that telemedicine has made the relationship between the doctor-patient real-time and without geographical constraints. A while back, we discussed the healthcare developments that would govern 2018, and now that we are getting ready to start a new year, it is only fitting that we look at where technology is going for the healthcare industry. Let us look at top healthcare trends for 2020 and beyond without further delay. AI is altering our view on the delivery of modern-day Healthcare.

Becker's Hospital Review interviewed Myndshft's CEO and Founder Ron Wince for his perspective on current healthcare trends and what technologies will disrupt the industry. Myndshft is working to change the paradigm of how organizations conduct business through the pragmatic application of process automation, artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies. Note: Responses were edited for style. Question: How have your priorities changed as your organization has grown? Ron Wince: We started the company with two things that have not changed -- we are laser focused on our purpose and our culture.

The winds of healthcare tech are changing -- at least when it comes to trends. It's clear from the recent HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition that mHealth is becoming the norm, while machine learning and AI is creeping its way in as a dominant trend in the industry. It's not just at conferences though; pay attention to news and press releases, and you'll see talk of machine learning and how it's being used to do everything from predicting illness to using healthcare analytics to reduce hospital readmissions. One of the most recent developments comes from a company that's set out to make artificial intelligence "routine, pervasive and actionable" for the entire spectrum of healthcare organizations. In mid-February, healthcare data and analytics company Health Catalyst announced its plans to embed the benefits of next-generation healthcare analytics throughout the healthcare experience.