Pharmaceutical Technology Trends 2024

By TechDogs Editorial Team

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Overview

Once upon a time in the mystical realms of Marvel-ous happenings, Doctor Strange made a spectacular return to Earth. Embracing his return to Earth, he opened a clinic, wowing patients with magic-infused medicinal remedies. With his cloak neatly tucked away (don't worry, the Eye of Agamotto was safely hidden), he joined a bustling hospital, looking dapper in his white coat.

"Hello, Earthlings! Doctor Stephen is in the house... err, hospital," he announced with a wink and a swirl of his hands.

You might think being the Sorcerer Supreme would exempt him from mundane earthly pursuits like keeping up with the latest pharmaceutical trends. Well, our dear Doctor Strange knew the importance of blending magical knowledge with modern medicinal learnings. We mean, a pinch of the "Eye of Newt" alongside some cutting-edge pharmaceutical trends could work wonders, right? He could create a unique blend of traditional healing and cutting-edge tech-driven remedies. Yet, he needed to know the latest and the greatest from the pharma world first!

Well, let us tell you, Dr. Strange! Here are the top 5 Pharmaceutical Technology Trends of 2024. Read on!

Where were we? Ahh, yes, with Doctor Strange!

So, Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, found himself back in the realm of the mundane, where potions were replaced by pills and magic spells by medical prescriptions. As he navigated this world, he realized that mastering the art of pharmaceutical trends was as crucial as wielding the mystic arts. With a wry grin, he murmured, "Seems the elixirs of this age are encased in capsules and vials rather than enchanted flasks."

He planned to emerge as a pro in the pharma world, so he swept through medical journals and conferences, diving into the depths of pharmaceutical breakthroughs. "Ah, the mysteries of biologics and gene therapies," he muttered, studying the intricacies of drug development. "Fascinating, how science continues to weave its spells upon the fabric of medicine!"

After some research on TechDogs.com, Doctor Strange figured out that in 2023, trends such as cloud, eLearning, blockchain, Natural Language Processing and big data had helped pharma leaders. Now, Doctor Strange wants to read all about the trends this year. So, let’s help him out!

Buckle up and join Dr. Strange as we present the top 5 Pharmaceutical Technology Trends of 2024!

Trend 1: The Evolution Of Electronic Health Records Will Be Inevitable

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The exponential growth of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in 2024 forecasts a revolutionary shift in healthcare practices. EHRs, storing patient data digitally, facilitate seamless access and sharing among pharmacists and healthcare providers, eradicating paperwork and reducing error margins. This technology will streamline operations, ensuring higher precision and efficiency in patient care in the coming years.

Projected to reach approximately USD 42,203.5 million by 2028, the EHR market's ascent, especially in North America, is fueled by technological advancements and substantial investments. For instance, TELUS Health's integration of Akira into its EHRs exemplifies this digital progression. Comprehensive market research on EHRs delineates industry dynamics, offering insights into patient segments, trends, challenges and opportunities – that's why key players like Canon Medical Systems Corporation, CureMD Corporation and others are adopting EHRs in 2024 and beyond.

TechDogs Takeaway: To begin with, businesses can integrate telehealth and EHR to get maximum success from this trend. Besides, combining the two systems provides a seamless remote care experience and offers automation for data entries, synchronizes insurance information and streamlines virtual care activities. By adopting this combination, businesses can boost staff efficiency, enhance patient-physician engagement and improve collaboration. The automatic updating of patient records ensures accurate and up-to-date information, facilitating better decision-making during virtual care.

The next step is to embrace AI-powered tools for enhanced patient interaction and efficiency. As AI-powered voice recognition and natural language processing (NLP) capabilities significantly impact healthcare operations. Businesses should adopt these technologies to simplify patient documentation, allowing healthcare providers to focus more on patients than screens. Moreover, the integration of NLP into EHR systems enhances physician efficiency and patient treatment, marking the future direction of smoother, more natural interactions between physicians and electronic systems.

Besides, integrating data from wearable devices into EHR systems presents an opportunity for businesses to offer improved patient care. Wearables, such as smartwatches and fitness trackers, provide extensive insights into patients' day-to-day activities, health conditions and medication routines. Leveraging technological advancements in wearables can allow healthcare facilities to remotely monitor high-risk patients continuously, providing real-time updates and proactive care, ultimately enhancing patient outcomes and satisfaction.

Trend 2: We Will Witness The Rise Of Point-of-Care Testing

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In 2024, the healthcare realm is witnessing a surge in Point-of-Care Testing (POCT), a trend revolutionizing patient care. These devices will empower healthcare providers with rapid, precise diagnostic abilities, right where the patient is. This transformative approach not only enhances treatment accuracy but also ensures timely interventions for serious conditions.

The health tech landscape is evolving fast, driven by innovations like biosensors, nanotech and smartphone integration. These breakthroughs promise enhanced accuracy, reliability and personalized medicine applications; novel biosensors deliver highly specific and sensitive results, while smartphone-based POCT devices offer simplicity, accessibility and cost-effectiveness. Ultimately, this trend marks a pivotal shift towards more accessible and efficient healthcare, bridging gaps in resource-limited settings and enabling remote patient monitoring in the near future.

TechDogs Takeaway: Businesses should prioritize adherence to robust regulatory frameworks and standardized guidelines when developing and implementing POCT (Point-of-Care Testing) devices. Investing in standardization efforts ensures consistent performance, reliability and safety, building trust in the technology, crucial for market acceptance and user confidence.

Pharma businesses must also prioritize data privacy and security when dealing with the increasing connectivity and integration of POCT devices with electronic systems. Implementing encryption, authentication measures and compliance with data protection laws are imperative to safeguard patient information during data transmission and storage.

Finally, collaboration among device manufacturers, software developers and healthcare providers will be essential for successful integration of POCT devices into existing healthcare systems. So, businesses should focus on creating user-friendly interfaces, standardizing data and ensuring interoperability with EHR systems and other healthcare platforms. Seamless integration will enhance the usability and adoption of POCT among healthcare professionals.

Trend 3: AI And Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) Will Be In Focus

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In the pharmaceutical realm, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) streamline data analysis, enhancing forecasting and drug development processes. This technology accelerates information processing, surpassing human capabilities and refining drug manufacturing quality and efficiency. Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is projected to reach a staggering $31.3 billion global market value by 2025, with an annual growth rate surpassing 40%. To harness these advancements effectively, pharma companies are adopting Machine Learning Operations (MLOps), enabling standardized and continual development.

McKinsey's research highlights a substantial 20% boost in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for firms embracing this approach. Pfizer exemplifies this trend, leveraging AI and automation to expedite clinical studies, ensure safety compliance and empower sales teams with AI-driven decision support. It has also deployed a digital rep adviser, empowered by AI and ML to strengthen its sales team with targeted decision support when they interact with the pharma professionals. So, that's how such innovations mark a transformative era, elevating healthcare's efficacy and accessibility through AI's pervasive integration across pharmaceutical landscapes.

TechDogs Takeaway: Businesses must prioritize standardized approaches like implementing MLOps allows for the creation of reusable AI/ML components. By adopting standardized processes and reusable code chunks, companies in the pharmaceutical industry can rapidly develop and combine AI/ML models, ensuring reliability, compliance and scalability.

Moreover, leveraging MLOps enables pharmaceutical companies to integrate AI and machine learning into core business processes as the integration goes beyond singular use cases, empowering digital teams to advance from basic analyses to foundational models and generative AI. This shift influences various sectors within the pharma value chain, spanning R&D, medical and commercial functions as it fundamentally alters workflows across the organization.

Finally, businesses should recognize that the adoption of MLOps facilitates scalability and speed in AI deployment. Unlike the traditional one-off approach, a production line backed by AI and MLOps ensures the continuous deployment of reliable and ready-to-use models at scale. This will not only accelerate the pace of innovation but also foster the potential for transformative impact, enabling pharmaceutical companies to rapidly adapt to changing market needs and technological advancements.

Trend 4: The Role Of Digital Therapeutics In Healthcare

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Digital therapeutics, a cutting-edge trend in pharma health tech this year, utilizes evidence-backed software and digital tools to administer treatment, potentially reducing or eliminating the need for traditional medication. This emerging approach facilitates collaboration between pharmaceutical companies and tech enterprises, offering support for conventional drug therapies aimed at disease prevention.

Major industry players like Merck, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Pfizer, Novartis and General Atlantic have significantly invested in digital health initiatives. For instance, General Atlantic spearheaded a $300 million Series D round into Biofourmis, a startup blending AI and biosensors for monitoring medical progress. With the digital health market poised to reach $42 billion by 2027, analysts anticipate sustained growth throughout 2023 and beyond, fueled by such strategic partnerships and innovative technologies.

Besides, another report highlighted that the global digital therapeutics market is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20% during 2022-2035 and USD 20 billion by 2035. Hence, most pharmaceutical businesses are expected to invest in digital therapeutics in 2024.

TechDogs Opinion: To leverage the Digital Therapeutics trend, businesses can focus on developing DTC channels for their products, especially in areas like mental health and neurology. This approach bypasses payer approval, targeting consumers directly for better accessibility. Businesses also need to assess the suitability of therapy areas for DTC and evaluate the size of the addressable market to determine the potential success of this approach. Next, to capitalize on the growth, businesses can invest in comprehensive digital treatments that encompass various aspects of healthcare, such as environmental sensors, wearable technologies and communication platforms. By creating holistic solutions for conditions such as Alzheimer’s, mental health and diabetes can enhance their market presence in digital therapeutics sectors.

Finally, pharma companies should focus on validating the efficacy of their products in preventive healthcare, as this sector has shown promise for digital therapeutics. Moreover, by designing and promoting digital therapeutics that integrate various technologies, including wearables, sensors and apps, pharma leaders can offer solutions that cover multiple aspects of patient care, ensuring a more holistic approach and attracting consumers seeking comprehensive health management.

Trend 5: Precision Medicine Will Rule!

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Precision medicine revolutionizes healthcare by tailoring treatments based on individual genetic makeup and lifestyle factors, a departure from traditional standardized approaches. As the need for personalization rises across touchpoints, this will be the pharma sector’s answer to the demand!

Anticipated to surpass $96 billion by 2024, this promising field owes its growth to bioinformatics, enabling personalized prescriptions and treatments. Health leaders foresee a shift toward individualized care, addressing variability in genes, environment, lifestyle and other factors.

While some healthcare organizations have embraced precision medicine, many are only beginning to explore its potential. This transformative trend will drive discussions among health IT leaders. Among those contributing already are leaders from South Shore Health, Regenstrief Institute, Sanford Health, UPMC Enterprises, Virginia Hospital Center and Providence, highlighting their substantial investments in precision medicine to pioneer personalized care and advance healthcare outcomes. Insights from these leaders highlight that precision medicine will rule the pharmaceutical sector in 2024 – and optimistically, beyond!

TechDogs Opinion: Businesses must prioritize navigating the complexities of informed consent, to begin with the advent of precision medicine. Its reliance on vast data sets means businesses need to ensure transparency in informed consent processes. Issues like future data use, disclosure of results and the ethical handling of new genetic information require businesses to create robust frameworks.

Besides, investment in cutting-edge technologies is essential for unlocking precision medicine's value. Companies invested in healthcare should prioritize deploying and developing advanced technologies, such as clinical next-generation sequencing, pharmacogenomics and innovative precision therapeutics. Additionally, building a strong data infrastructure will maximize the impact of precision medicine.

Finally, addressing the implications of genetic information necessitates thoughtful consideration and education for this trend. After all, genetic information has far-reaching implications for individuals, families and communities. Businesses involved in precision medicine need to invest in education initiatives for physicians and stakeholders to enhance the understanding and communication around using genetic information.

It’s A Wrap!

So, that's how the landscape of pharmaceutical technology will continue to evolve at a rapid pace, ushering in groundbreaking innovations that will redefine healthcare delivery and patient outcomes!
From the advent of personalized medicine driven by advancements in genomics to the integration of AI/ML in drug discovery, these trends hold immense promise for revolutionizing the way we approach healthcare. Ultimately, the future of pharmaceutical technology appears bright, offering unparalleled opportunities to improve lives and reshape the landscape of healthcare on a global scale. So, which trends are you most excited about?

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Tags:

Pharmaceutical Technology Pharmaceutical Technology Trends Technology Trends Electronic Health Records (EHR) Point-of-care Testing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) Digital Therapeutics

Join The Discussion

Pharmaceutical Technology Trends 2024

Trend 1: The Evolution Of Electronic Health Records Will Be Inevitable

Trend 2: We Will Witness The Rise Of Point-of-Care Testing

Trend 3: AI And Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) Will Be In Focus

Trend 4: The Role Of Digital Therapeutics In Healthcare

Trend 5: Precision Medicine Will Rule!

It’s A Wrap!

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