Reference no: EM133105144

Trend 3 - Telehealth The healthcare industry has traditionally been one of the most resistant when it comes to IT and digital technology uptake. However, the COVID-19 pandemic showed the huge potential, and real-world functionality, of telehealth technologies as vital tools to help avoid the spread of viruses through tracking, testing and treating.

In a research innovation project launched in September 2020, Ericsson, Telia and Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden used AI to help monitor and manage the demand on healthcare resources, creating and refining advanced AI analysis and insight models for the planning and prediction of healthcare resources.

Ericsson, University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) and King's College London also collaborated on the 5G Connected Ambulance - a groundbreaking new way to connect patients, ambulance workers and remote medical experts in real time. This innovation enabled healthcare workers to perform the UK's first remote diagnostic procedure over 5G, demonstrating its transformative potential to enable clinicians and paramedics to collaborate haptically, even when they are miles apart - and help patients even if they can't get access to a hospital.

Telehealth also provided other game-changing ways to address the challenges of providing health services at home, through video conferencing, e-mail, telephone, or smartphone apps.
These advances have been particularly helpful for seniors. Recent insights from an Ericsson ConsumerLab study revealed that devices and the internet had helped 90 percent of seniors surveyed during the pandemic. The benefits offered by technology aren't limited to medical services either, but can be factors that can improve overall quality of life through mobility, safety and socialization.

A 2020 study also concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic had forced important changes in the healthcare industry which may help to establish telehealth more firmly in the years to come. This will be a vital step in building trust and technological literacy for the revolutionary innovations set to transform the future of medicine.

4. Significance of the innovation to the business industry.

5. Would you recommend the innovation? Why?