Propelled by Covid, and the pandemic’s associated quarantines and other ills, digital health technologies are finding wide acceptance among consumers and clinicians alike. The care this tech enables isn’t tethered to brick-and-mortar waiting rooms and office hours. Increasingly, healthcare-related technologies are empowering consumers to take control of their wellness through tools that are designed to improve the overall quality of care and save lives while lowering costs. Here’s a closer look at what’s trending in digital health as CES 2024 nears.

Personalized, Digitized Care

 
Digital health, notes the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), encompasses categories such as mobile health, health IT, wearable devices, telehealth and telemedicine, and personalized medicine. From mobile medical apps and software that support physicians’ clinical decisions, to artificial intelligence and machine learning, technology has been “driving a revolution in healthcare,” according to the agency.
 
The tools of digital health – computing platforms, connectivity, software, sensors and more - dramatically improve clinicians’ ability to accurately diagnose and treat disease. They also improve delivery of care for individual patients through, for example, medical devices, diagnostics, research, drugs and biologics. This is a trend that will be prominently displayed throughout the show in January.
 

Digital Health and AI

 
Recent leaps in AI innovation are fueling progress in health technology. Artificial intelligence in health, another key trend, is being used in many cases to harness large data sets for speeding development of personalized treatments. It’s also streamlining clinician workflows to reduce provider burnout.
 
Evidence points to this trend gaining momentum. Recent CTA research studied perceptions and uses of AI and different digital health solutions to help businesses better understand this changing landscape. Findings from two CTA reports, Driving Consumer Adoption of Digital Health Solutions and 2023 Decoding Consumer Sentiment and Outlook on Artificial Intelligence, U.S. Edition, revealed that:
 

• At least three in four consumers who are interested in using digital health solutions believe these solutions will help improve their overall wellbeing.
• 42% of U.S. adults familiar with AI expect that the healthcare field will experience the greatest positive impact, compared to 20 other sectors surveyed, from AI.
• More than two in five (42%) are open to having AI technology tools make medical diagnoses for them.
• 64% of U.S. adults familiar with AI are open (very to somewhat) to consulting with an AI doctor remotely.
• More than a quarter (29%) are also open to having AI tech tools perform surgery on them.

Looking back on CES 2024

In January 2024 the event highlighted these trends and other market indicators relative to personalization, accessibility and AI innovation. Technologies like these are bridging gaps in care through inclusive systems, improved user interfaces and virtual ecosystems for anytime-anywhere access.