Health experts say the medical care industry has seen dramatic changes over the past few decades.
While most people think of hospitals and doctors as a single, monolithic entity, a new survey shows hospitals and their doctors have undergone a massive makeover.
In the survey, conducted by research firm iQonomy, the largest healthcare industry association, about two-thirds of respondents said they had heard of or seen the medical treatment industry in the last five years.
Health experts say a major reason for the shift in the industry is the advent of new types of services, which are increasingly offered through online platforms, such as virtual and augmented reality, and online video and apps.
“The fact that we’ve got people that are online in a much more immersive way, that they can interact with doctors and nurses and even have a virtual presence and be able to see the doctor’s face and have a conversation, I think that’s what’s happening with the healthcare sector,” said John Voss, CEO of iQonomics.
“People are able to access all of these services on their phones, or they can be able use their own devices.”
The survey also found that a majority of doctors said they were increasingly relying on the Internet to reach their patients, which is a shift that is changing the way they treat their patients.
The findings, which come as the U.S. faces a record-breaking number of hospitalizations, were conducted by the iQonomic Group, a non-profit research firm.
Voss said that while the medical sector has become more integrated with the digital world, there has been a shift in how people interact with their doctors.
Doctors have increasingly taken advantage of technology, such that they are using the internet to communicate with patients, he said.
But the digital transformation isn’t just changing how doctors interact with patients; it’s also changing how patients treat their doctors, Voss said.
The new technology is also making doctors less likely to see patients in person, Vox said.
In some cases, doctors are not only being replaced by online platforms; they are also being replaced with a new kind of digital service, such a virtual or augmented reality experience, that allows doctors to be seen in a virtual space, and is often much more realistic than physical visits, Viss said.
Dr. Michael Kiley, the president and CEO of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said it is crucial for doctors to continue to work with patients in their community, especially when the new technologies are becoming more widely available.
Kiley said he is concerned about the fact that doctors are moving from traditional, one-to-one interactions to virtual and other online platforms that allow doctors to interact with the public.
As more and more doctors move to virtual or other platforms, it is a real concern that people are being exposed to these experiences, Kiley said.
“We’ve seen that in our community,” Kiley added.
“We’ve been seeing more and further and further instances where people have been able to get a virtual doctor visit.
That’s a real problem.”