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16.1.2024
FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE
Technology report
Teemu Hyppänen
Joona Haikonen
2
Table of contents
1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 3
2 Methodology................................................................................................................... 5
3 Theoretical background .................................................................................................. 7
3.1 Present disruptive technologies ............................................................................... 8
3.2 Near future disruptive technologies ........................................................................ 9
3.3 Distant future disruptive technologies .................................................................. 10
4 Benchmark of selected technologies ............................................................................ 12
4.1 Benefits ................................................................................................................. 12
4.2 Challenges of healthcare digitalization ................................................................. 13
5 Results and analysis ...................................................................................................... 15
5.1 Managerial implications ........................................................................................ 19
6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 21
References ............................................................................................................................ 22
3
1 Introduction
This study concentrates on how digital innovations can benefit healthcare. The main focus
is on innovations to decrease costs since public healthcare system in Finland is currently in
an economic crisis. The welfare counties have been established in the beginning of the year
2023 and it has been shown that the money reserved from the government may not be
sufficient for maintaining the current structure. New digital technologies could help the
healthcare system to sustain since they can for example provide solutions to offer same
services with lesser need of workforce (Garcia et al. 2023). Economic problems are mostly
caused by ageing population as demonstrated in Figure 1 below, but also there are challenges
with healthcare workforce availability. Especially there are not enough nurses and in
addition physicians to fulfil the needs (e.g. Yle 2023). One cost rising effect is that public
healthcare providers are forced to acquire outsourced personnel with expensive price.
Figure 1. Age structure of Finland (Statistics Finland 2023).
The McKinsey Global Institute’s estimation that digital health interventions could save
between $1.5 trillion and $3 trillion a year by 2030 is based on the potential of several key
technologies, including remote monitoring, AI, and automation. (Bartlett et al. 2021.)
According to a report by the World Economic Forum, many healthcare leaders across 14
4
global markets are investing heavily in digital health. The report also highlights that
telemedicine along other forms of technologies, is becoming increasingly popular, with
many countries shifting from in-person medical consultations to telemedicine using apps,
phone, and video appointments. In developing countries, digital healthcare is also helping
with remote access to specialists where distances can be vast. (World Economic Forum
2021.) For example, Usmani et al. (2023) introduces artificial intelligence as a promising
technology for healthcare. Imperial (Usmani et al. 2023). College London has made a table
of 100 disruptive technologies which are not specifically related to healthcare, but clearly
part of the technologies can be categorized as related to healthcare as done in this study. As
the key findings in this study, the disruptive technologies that impact or benefit healthcare
are analysed in the aspects of to whom they are visible: patients, healthcare professionals or
support tasks and as a second aspect what benefits and risks are related to them. In addition,
this study demonstrates other benchmark data of prominent healthcare related digital
technologies. In the literature search there is also defined what the healthcare related
disruptive technologies are.
This study also focuses on the aspect of public healthcare in Finland. The crisis type situation
of the healthcare in Finland makes this study essential and it is a pity that the results are not
to be shared with any healthcare providers, politicians or healthcare managers since the data
found would be useful for future planning.
The objective of this study is to offer a composed general view of what kind of possibilities
does the digitalization provide to public healthcare of Finland in the challenging game of
limited resources and rising needs of care due to ageing population. The research questions
where this study focuses are:
1. What are the digital technologies of the future that will change healthcare?
2. What kind of impacts and benefits does development of digital technologies provide
to healthcare especially in the perspective of costs and cost savings?
As limitations of this study, the study is highly based on the certain previous study of
disruptive technologies which is five years old. The technology development is fast paced,
and some technologies may have advanced to adoption faster or some may have been
postponed to further future in the expectations on when they will be relevant. In addition,
there may have been discovered new technologies or predictions of future technologies that
5
could not be foresighted years earlier. However, this limitation is declined by the benchmark
of newer research of healthcare related digital technology. As the structure of this study,
there is Methodology chapter to explain what kind of research methodology is used and the
data collection is described. Theoretical background is based on explaining the disruptive
technologies for healthcare. There is also a chapter of what experiences were found of these
technologies’ usage outside Finland. After those chapters, there is Result and analysis where
the technologies are categorised by the groups they affect and by their benefits and risks as
well as there are managerial recommendations. The final chapter is Conclusion for summing
up.
2 Methodology
This study aims on constructing a big picture on what kind of opportunities digitalization
provides for healthcare to sustain the economic pressures due to rising demand and limited
resources. The study focuses on the viewpoint of healthcare ecosystem that is in Finland.
The study limits out healthcare systems, as well as social care and wellbeing.
To answer the research questions there is reanalysed data that has been collected for other
purposes, which is known as secondary data (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill 2009, 256). The
study is based on inductive approach meaning that data is explored to develop theory
(Saunders et al. 2009, 61). To clarify what this means, this study offers relevant information
of technologies that can impact healthcare and provides insights what are to be considered
now and in the near future. The data used is only qualitative which is non-numerical data
(Saunders et al. 2009, 151).
For constructing the theoretical background at first the table of disruptive technologies was
utilized to have a wide understanding of what kind of technologies may have interference
with the development of healthcare. The source of the table was that it had been a course
material in a former course of one of the students of the group working with this report.
A literature review was performed focusing on the disruptive technologies. A purpose of the
literature review was to have an understanding on what kind of technologies the table is built
6
of and gaining knowledge for the evaluation of their benefits and risks. LUT Primo search
engine was utilized in the literature review. Search criteria was the most relevant articles and
then the articles were analysed by their topic and content, are they applicable for creating a
theoretical background on the explored technology. A minority of the topics were too
complicated for finding any useful data and in those cases, there had to be performed a
traditional Google search. Those topics were categorized as distant future technologies and
it is natural, that those topics have not yet been studied much since they are foresights of the
future and not something existing that could be studied.
To have more convincing evidence of the technologies usability the study aims to offer
examples of examined technology solutions that are already in real use. There was assessed
the advantages & benefits and challenges of specific chosen technologies which are already
in use or could have serious advantages when implemented correctly. To make the
benchmark more convincing there was showcased possibilities and concrete examples of
how these technologies could be used. These selected examples will demonstrate that the
technologies are not just concepts but are already making a difference in various industries
and fields. Illustrating the real-world benefits of these technologies besides the possible
challenges, might prove them very worthwhile to be considered.
After the literature search, there was performed a deeper analysis of the disruptive
technologies. The disruptive technologies were categorized by which group they affect
patients, healthcare professionals, or support tasks of healthcare. Categorising data is a
qualitative data analysis procedure (Saunders et al. 2009, 151). After this, it was decided to
narrow the evaluation of risks and benefits of the disruptive technologies to the ones that are
happening now or in the near future. In other words, distant future technologies were
excluded from the analysis. A thorough reasoning to do so would be that this study is
interested in what tools does the technologies offer for healthcare providers at this moment
and not in a far future.
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3 Theoretical background
At first for the theoretical background, there is presented a table of disruptive technologies
related to healthcare. The table also gives information on how soon the disruptive
technologies are emerging or if they are already happening.
Table 1. Disruptive technologies for healthcare (Adapted from Imperial College London
2018).
LOW POTENTIAL FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DISRUPTION IN HEALTHCARE HIGH
Conversationa
l machine
interfaces
AI
advisors
&
decision-
making
machine
s
Transhuma
n
technologie
s
Male
pregnancy &
artificial
wombs
DNA
data
storage
Genomic
vaccines
Cognitive
prosthetic
s
Data
uploading
to the brain
Predictive
gene-based
healthcare
Autonomou
s robotic
surgery
Programmabl
e bacteria
Lifelong
personal
avatar
assistants
Medical
tricorders
Diagnostic
toilets
Human-
organ
printing
Artificial
human blood
substitute
Autonomou
s vehicles
Delivery
robots &
passenger
drones
3D printing of
pharmaceutical
s
Robotic care
companions
Smart
controls
and
appliance
s
Bioplastics
Wireless
energy
transfer
Powered
exoskeleton
s
Computerized
shoes &
clothing
Vacuum-
tube
transport
Green area happening now
Yellow area near future 10-20 years
Orange area distant future +20 years
TIME
SOONER - LATER
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After the demonstration of the entirety of disruptive technologies effecting healthcare, the
theoretical background moves on to explaining them in a more detailed level.
3.1 Present disruptive technologies
The beginning of self-driving has been a complicated process and there has been regulative
enabling improvements in the first decades of 2000s (Iclodean, Barga & Cordos 2022).
Nowadays, people feel the autonomous vehicles uncomfortable. Positive sides that are seen
are usability for people who cannot drive, the driver can do other things while driving,
potential for pollution declining and fewer traffic accidents. Negative impacts are
unemployment, higher car prices, potential for pollution rising if more journeys are made,
hacking and privacy issues. (Hudson, Orviska & Hunady 2019, 175.)
Bakach, Campbell & Ehmke have studied delivery robots, and their potential is on cost
saving of last-mile deliveries (Bakach et al. 2019). According to Lee (2019), autonomous
delivery robots can reduce human workforce and provide faster services. However, the
success of the utilization is dependent on how the users like the new technology. (Lee 2019.)
Passenger drones has risen attention as the solution for mobility. They are carbon neutral
and solve the traffic congestion in large cities. (Solhee et al. 2023.)
Andrade et al. (2014) has studied robotic care companions. Benefits of the robotic care
companions are activation of elderly people, improvement of mood and reducing the need
for human care workers. On the risk side, physical harm should be considered. (Andrade et
al. 2014, 72-73.)
Smart appliances relate to remote monitoring and management features of appliances and
systems (Yasar 2023). Smart controls obviously relate to the same kind of features. Wireless
energy transfer or wireless power transfer is a technology to transmitting energy through an
air gap to a load without connection cables. It is also called as wireless charging and the
removal of ports and making cables obsolete is seen more convenient. Use cases vary from
smartphones to electric vehicles. (McCann & Bryson 2023.)
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3.2 Near future disruptive technologies
3D printing is a common way to express additive manufacturing. In pharmaceutical sciences
3D printing focuses on fused deposition modelling, semisolid intrusion, stereolithography,
and material jetting. (Liang, Brambilla & Leroux 2019, 1.) 3D printing offers a solution for
efficient mass production of customized products like for example health maintenance
products and emergency supporting devices (Piili et al. 2013). The field is in an infant level
and there are uncertainties about process controllability, product reliability, and regulations.
It is more likely that 3D-printed pharmaceuticals will be only complementing and not
replacing traditional manufacturing. As a clear benefit of 3D printing of pharmaceuticals, it
is an essential tool for enabling innovations. (Liang et al. 2019, 3-4.)
Artificial human blood is a product that is made as a substitute for red blood cells. True
blood has various functions, but artificially created blood that has been made only transports
oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the body. The blood substitute research has started
in 1600s and continues trying to find the ideal blood substitute. (Sarkar 2008.)
Acceptance of autonomous surgery with robots requires a debate on ethics and trust. Another
way to call it is robotic-assisted surgery. A relevant question to be asked would be who is
responsible in a court if an autonomous robot makes a failure in a surgery? (O’Sullivan 2018,
2.) Autonomous robots and AI could assist in time-consuming microsurgeries and
orthopaedic operations which can last up to 16 hours. In the near future, robotic surgery
could help performing routine operative tasks which could be supervised by a human
surgeon. (O’Sullivan 2018, 10.)
A prototype of home-use toilet which has urine sampler, and analysers that measure a panel
of urinary biomarkers has been made. The results can be for self-monitoring or even shared
for healthcare in real time. (Ranjitkar 2018, 1128.)
Computerized clothing or smart clothing can include integrating sensors to detect motion or
user vitals and could be linked with smartphone. The data could be accesses by an application
and could be stored in the cloud. (Donaldson 2013.)
3D printers have been adapted to for human-organ printing. It has started from skin and
various tissue patches. Implants are an area of applying as well. However, there are
considerable challenges with the emerging technology, but continuing progress will
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eventually lead to breakthroughs in applications of 3D printing. Prospects for printing entire
organs for transplant are several years ahead. (Murr 2016, 987-995.)
With avatar you can have human like chat. As a benefit, people can feel socially active. It is
expectable that chat will become ubiquitous by 2030 and there will be human like
interactions with machines with the aid of artificial intelligence. Machines interaction with
people will be able to show empathy. (Saracco 2018.)
Medical tricorders are used for scanning vital signs and diagnosing medical problems in
seconds. They are handheld devices medical tricorders are for example USB cameras, fiber
optics cameras and they can be wireless or corded. COVID-19 has boosted the development
and there is already a global market for the products. (NASDAQ 2021.)
Powered exoskeletons use cases are various. Designs specialize in upper or lower extremity.
They can be utilized as medical-based devices, rehabilitation devices, and industrial devices.
Medical-based devices can be used for spinal cord injured persons. Rehabilitation devices
assist mobility after stroke. Industrial devices are used for lifting and other industrial tasks.
(Bai, Virk & Sugar 2018.)
Healthcare is going to have aid from gene technology. Screening of most conditions would
not most likely be cost effective, but DNA screening tests for first-degree relatives of
affected patients would more likely be a cost-effective solution. (Rogowski 2007, 350.)
Synthetic biology has made possible of programming cells or unicellular organisms to
perform certain tasks to allow programming bacteria (Becerra, Gutierrez & Lahoz-Beltra,
2022, 1).
3.3 Distant future disruptive technologies
AI advisors are well trusted even if the users do not know anything about the data it is based
on. An article studied how AI is utilized in decision-making with ethical dilemmas and AI
was highly trusted. The article suggests thinking about ensuring that AI-powered algorithms
are used responsibly and as one solution is offered improving digital literacy. (Krügel,
Ostermaier & Uhl 2022, 16-17.)
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Bioplastics are replaced materials obtained from fossil fuels. They can offer significant
benefits for the environment. (Confente, Scarpi & Russo 2020.) Cognitive prosthetics can
be utilized for fostering observations, interpretation, explanation, exploration, feedback,
collaboration, rigorous talk and other cognitive and social behaviours which are utilized for
learning from experience (Kolodner 2015, 36).
Chatbots and virtual agents have emerged with recent advances in natural language
processing as well as in machine learning. The conversational interfaces have found their
places in smartphones, desktops and living rooms of common people. (Moore & Raphael,
2018, 2)
Lorrimar (2019) rises questions of data uploading to the brain. What would it do to our ability
to make sense of our world and how a radical and morphological freedom and diversity as a
result of enhancing technologies could impact our ability to understand the world and the
other? (Lorrimar 2019, 197.)
Molecule manipulating is improving faster than ever, and DNA could be a solution for
computing and storage since physical limits of existing ones is coming nearer. DNA has high
theoretical information density and lasts potentially for thousands of years. There has been
developed basic tools to writing and reading DNA which could be utilized for digital data
storage. (Carmean et al. 2018, 63.)
While standard vaccines against infectious diseases consist of killed or weakened pathogens
or proteins or cancer treatment vaccines with proteins, genomic vaccines consist of genes
(Scientific American 2017). Uterus could be transplanted into a man and one step has been
taken into it. A uterus has been transplanted into a woman. However, male body does not
consist of uterine artery, veins and other anatomic factors, but such structured can be created
by utilizing vessels elsewhere male body. Another solution would be artificial womb, which
means the baby developing outside the body in a machine. The last mentioned is also called
as ectogenesis. (Warmflash 2018.)
Transhuman technologies are biological enhancements to human beings. It can be genetic
enhancement or cyborgization. (Petrjanosova 2015.) Vacuum-tube transport can be future
There has been news about a vacuum tube train that has been in development by a Canadian
startup. The high-speed magnetic train travelling inside a vacuum tube reaches a speed of
1000 kilometres per hour, and in addition reduces emissions. (Interesting Engineering 2022.)
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4 Benchmark of selected technologies
In recent years, healthcare digitalization has become a global trend, with many countries
investing in new technologies to improve their healthcare systems. However, some of these
technologies are not yet widely utilized. This chapter aims to provide a benchmark of such
technologies. It is important to note that some countries are more advanced and faster to
adopt new technologies in healthcare.
4.1 Benefits
Remote patient monitoring has shown significant potential to reduce acute care use. It can
cut hospitalizations by 17%, emergency department visits by 15% and the cost of treatment
for patients with chronic conditions by $1,173 per patient per year. Remote patient
monitoring reduces operational costs, improves efficiency, and enhances resource allocation.
(Dusun 2023.)
Artificial intelligence, AI has transformed various fields including healthcare, with the
potential to improve patient care and quality of life. AI can help in disease diagnosis,
treatment selection and clinical laboratory testing to name a few. It offers increased accuracy,
reduced costs and time savings while minimizing human errors during the process. One of
the key areas where AI has made significant advances is in disease diagnosis. AI techniques
ranging from machine learning to deep learning are prevalent in healthcare for disease
diagnosis. In the upcoming years, AI technology holds the potential to offer real-time support
and insights to medical professionals in their decision-making processes. Ongoing research
efforts are dedicated to harnessing AI's capabilities in the domain of medical diagnosis and
treatment, encompassing the analysis of various fields, including X-rays, CT scans, MRIs
and more. Through the application of machine learning techniques, AI has the capacity to
spot patterns, pinpoint fractures, identify tumours and other medical conditions. This
integration of AI into healthcare promises swifter and more precise medical diagnoses thus
reducing cost while increasing accuracy and saving time. (Alowais et al. 2023.)
On the other hand, relatively simple automation solutions are reducing the cost of care
delivery and streamlining simple administrative tasks like patient registration, patient data
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entry, claims processing and so much more. Automation allows healthcare worker to
accomplish more within their normal shifts, reducing their overall stress. By implementing
AI-powered systems to automate administrative tasks, healthcare providers can improve
efficiency, reduce costs and free up human resources to more valuable tasks. (Dignity Health
2022.)
Blockchain technology, a distributed network that generates and stores data records, holds
the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry. It maintains a digital ledger of
connected blocks of information that represent how data is shared, changed or accessed on
its peer-to-peer network. The application of blockchain in healthcare is still in early stages,
nevertheless, early solutions have shown the potential to reduce healthcare costs, streamline
business processes and improve access to information. The adoption of blockchain
technology could save the healthcare industry up to $100-$150 billion per year by 2025 in
data breach related costs, IT maintenance costs, operations costs, support function costs and
personnel costs and through a reduction in frauds and counterfeit products. (Arsene 2023.)
4.2 Challenges of healthcare digitalization
The adoption of new technologies such as AI, blockchain, remote patient modelling and
telehealth in healthcare can bring numerous benefits, including improved patient care,
increased efficiency, and cost savings. However, these technologies also present several
challenges that need to be addressed for successful implementation. (Petersson et al. 2022.)
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to revolutionize various sectors including healthcare.
However, its adoption is not without challenges. Concerns about over-reliance on third-party
integrations and the potential loss of a human element in customer service are seen as an
obstacle. Additionally, there is a skills gap in understanding AI’s complexities, which can
be addressed by investing in relevant training. Another challenge is the fear of job
displacement among employees. (Forbes Business Council 2023.)
One of the major challenges in implementing blockchain technology is inefficient
technological design, including coding flaws. Another issue is the lack of trust among users
due to the anonymous nature of blockchain transactions, which has led to its use in illegal
14
activities. Furthermore, the lack of standardization raises issues such as lack of trust. (Iredale
2021.)
Remote patient monitoring & telehealth has been redefining healthcare for years. It offers
numerous benefits such as improved access to medical care and higher engagement rates
with patients. However, those adoptions also come with challenges. One significant
challenge is data overload from remote patient monitoring devices which can overwhelm
healthcare providers with vast amount of data. Patient privacy also raises concerns, since the
transmission of sensitive patient data across phone or internet, on unsecured devices.
(Ruyobeza 2022.)
In conclusion the digitalization of healthcare and the adoption of new technologies, while
offering numerous benefits, also present significant challenges that need to be addressed and
tackled. The potential e.g., for improved patient outcomes and increased efficiency in
healthcare delivery is substantial. However, the accumulation of sensitive data and relative
slow adoption of new technologies and the increased healthcare expenses associated with
implementing these new technologies are all issues that need to be carefully considered.
Specific developments such as telehealth, despite its possibilities face their own unique set
of challenges. These include things like patients not recognizing changes in their condition,
handling of gathered sensitive data and the lack of human contact which might expose the
patient to more serious conditions. Therefore, it is crucial for healthcare providers develop
comprehensive strategies and regulations to ensure the effective and safe use of these
technologies. This includes creating decision criteria for strategic technology planning and
considering the specific environments in which these technologies will be implemented, and
in which use cases. Innovation is occurring at a fast pace, and the healthcare sector must be
prepared to adapt and evolve to fully harness the potential of digitalization and new the
technologies which it brings.
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5 Results and analysis
In the theoretical background section, there were demonstrated the disruptive technologies
that are happening now or in the future and are related to healthcare. As an analysis, in the
Table 2 below, the disruptive technologies and benchmarked technologies were categorized
by to which group they are visible to. The groups were patients, healthcare professionals and
healthcare supporting tasks. Supporting tasks consist of for example logistics and cleaning
in healthcare. Some of the disruptive technologies were analysed to be overlapping in
multiple groups and those were listed on all the rows of groups instead of just one.
In the benchmark part of the analysis, there was discovered a range of significant benefits,
including substantial cost savings and a much more efficient utilization of human resources.
These findings prove that adoption of new technologies is beneficial, if not even necessary
in the future.
In healthcare industry the adoption of AI and other automation technologies, including
remote patient monitoring, could be a possible game changer. AI solutions can be used for
example in automating administrative tasks which leads to reducing burden on healthcare
professionals, who then can focus on more valuable and important tasks. Furthermore,
besides the administrative task's automation, AI algorithms can be utilized in clinical
decision support. AI algorithms can analyse large amounts of patient data to assist healthcare
professionals in making more informed and timely decisions regarding the patient and
possible follow-up treatment.
Cost savings can be achieved with remote patient monitoring. Remote patient monitoring
allows for continuous tracking of patient’s vital signs and other health matters. This approach
has proven to be effective in preventing hospitalizations by up to 17% and emergency
department visits by 15%. This leads to significant cost savings, as it enhances resource
allocation and improves efficiency of healthcare professionals as they can focus on patients
with the most acute needs, while lower priority cases can be managed remotely.
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Table 2. Disruptive technologies for healthcare categorized by visibility to patients,
healthcare professionals and support tasks (Adapted from Imperial College London 2018).
Visible for patients
Visible to healthcare
professionals
Visible to support tasks
Happening now
Robotic care
companions
Smart controls and
appliance
Autonomous vehicles
Wireless energy transfer
Delivery robots &
passenger drones
Telemedicine
Automation
Remote monitoring
Near future 10–20
years
Artificial Intelligence
Blockchain
Medical tricorders
Predictive gene-based
healthcare
Diagnostic toilets
Autonomous robotic
surgery
Lifelong personal avatar
assistants
Programmable bacteria
Human organ printing
Powered exoskeletons
Artificial human blood
substitute
3D printing of
pharmaceuticals
Computerized shoes & clothing
Distant future +20
years
Vacuum-tube transport
Bioplastics
Conversational machine
interfaces
Male pregnancy & artificial wombs
AI advisors & decision
making machines
DNA data storage
Genomic vaccines
Cognitive prosthetics
Transhuman technologies
Data uploading to the brain
In Table 3 below, the disruptive technologies for healthcare discovered in the earlier parts
of this study were categorized and demonstrated by their benefits and risks. The scope was
narrowed excluding distant future technologies and including only near future and already
happening technologies.
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Table 3. Disruptive technologies for healthcare happening now or in the near future
categorized by benefits and risks. Yellow coloureds are happening now.
Disruptive
technology
Benefits
Risks
Automation
Administrative tasks replacement
Dependency of coding professionals and
loss of human contact
Autonomous
vehicles
Patient logistics and replacing taxis and
ambulances.
Autonomous driving fails. Autonomous
taxis do not have a person to help patients
having problems of moving by themselves
Delivery robots
& passenger
drones
Logistics inside and outside hospitals.
Medication could be delivered to homes.
Patients could be delivered with drones.
Failures of movement. Regulation against
flying outside.
Remote
monitoring
Reduces need of acute care.
Data overload risk for healthcare
professionals, privacy issues.
Robotic care
companions
Elderly people could stay at home longer
instead of in care units.
Companions could harm people.
Smart controls
and appliance
Self-service opportunities. Hospital turns
into efficient smart system.
Data risks, network and electricity
dependency turns offline situations into
catastrophes.
Telemedicine
Replacing in-person medical
consultations, access to healthcare from
distant places, efficiency in work.
Loss of human contact, will not work for
all patients, patient state may be falsely
evaluated with remote contact and need
of more intensive care could be
unnoticed.
Wireless energy
transfer
More fluent work.
Expensive technology to acquire and
costly maintenance.
3D printing of
pharmaceuticals
Logistics can be avoided to save costs and
time.
It could be more expensive. Printing could
consume worktime of nurses.
Artificial
Intelligence
Increases quality, reduces costs, saves
time.
Loss of human element in customer
service, over-reliability in 3rd party
integrations, skill gap in understanding AI,
fear of job displacement among
employees
Artificial human
blood substitute
Blood storage would not go empty.
It could be expensive.
18
Autonomous
robotic surgery
Saves the time of surgeons.
Failure would not be tolerated as well as
human failure even if it is rarer. Who is
responsible if robotic surgery error
happens should be solved. Robot could do
only the easiest surgeries.
Blockchain
Generating and storing data records.
Inefficient technological design e.g.,
coding flaws, lack of trust due to
anonymity, illegal activities and lack of
standardization
Computerized
shoes &
clothing
Measuring the work of healthcare
professionals and vital signs of patients.
Fluency of work and more data.
More expenses on clothes.
Diagnostic
toilets
Could be gathered data on patients in
hospital and possibility to self-diagnostics.
Savings on the time of laboratory
personnel and patient.
More expenses on toilets. The time of
laboratory personnel may not be lesser.
Human organ
printing
Patients in need of organ donors could be
helped with printed organs. Better quality
healthcare.
Costs for more surgeries.
Lifelong
personal avatar
assistants
They offer more developed company than
robotic care companions. More people
can be aided to stay at home instead of in
care units.
An error may cause avatars to harm
people. It can still be a long way until they
can replace human care.
Medical
tricorders
Self-diagnostics data to be utilized in
healthcare. Patients could be sent to
home quicker with tricorders and self-
measuring.
Patients may falsely use the device and
the date could not be reliable.
Powered
exoskeletons
Logistics can be done more efficiently.
Patients that cannot move their
extremities or need rehabilitation with
them can have help. Patients could be
sent to home quicker and they could be
able to work.
Exoskeletons make people bigger which
may cause some restrictions in its use. It
may be expensive. People with
exoskeleton may harm other people by
not in purpose or worse, in purpose.
Programmable
bacteria
Quality of healthcare rises since more
care can be performed. A possibility to
replace other more expensive care.
Could cause more expenses.
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5.1 Managerial implications
To have an understanding of what are the key technologies for cost savings, an analysis of
what of the disruptive technologies has a remarkable effect on human resources as saving
worktime or replacing workforce is demonstrated in Table 4 below.
Table 4. Disruptive technologies for healthcare happening now or in the near future
categorized by the effects to the workforce. Yellow coloureds are happening now.
Disruptive technology
Worktime savings
Workforce replacement
Automation
All work professions
Autonomous vehicles
Taxi and ambulance drivers
Delivery robots & passenger drones
Taxi and ambulance drivers
Logistics personnel
Remote monitoring
Self-monitoring
Robotic care companions
Nursing personnel
Smart controls and appliance
Self-service opportunities
Secretaries
Telemedicine
Physicians and nursing
personnel
Wireless energy transfer
Work fluency
3D printing of pharmaceuticals
Logistics personnel
Artificial intelligence
Diagnostics
Autonomous robotic surgery
Surgeons
Blockchain
Physicians and nursing
personnel
Computerized shoes & clothing
Work fluency
Diagnostic toilets
Laboratory personnel
Nursing personnel
Lifelong personal avatar assistants
Nursing personnel
Medical tricorders
Nursing personnel
Nursing personnel
Powered exoskeletons
Logistics personnel
Patients
Programmable bacteria
A possibility to replace other
more expensive care
20
The already happening technologies of Table 4 are described next to demonstrate how they
effect on the need of personnel. Autonomous vehicles, delivery robots and passenger drones
could provide taxi and ambulance driver replacements. Logistics deliveries of delivery
robots offer a possibility to save in the need of logistics personnel which makes the logistics
cheaper. Remote monitoring decreases the time patients are needed to stay in hospital.
Robotic care companions and lifelong personal avatar assistants offer a possibility to
replacing nurses. Smart controls and appliance with their self-service possibilities could
save worktime as well as in some cases they could replace secretaries in registration to
appointments and examinations. Telemedicine offers solutions for patients to have
consultancy remotely increasing the flow in healthcare and patients can be not consuming
the resources of healthcare by their physical visit. There is also a new possibility, that highly
expensive MRI examination devices can be operated remotely by a radiographer and what
is remarkable is that it makes possible to operate two examinations and devices
simultaneously at the same time. Wireless energy transfer can provide fluency to work when
you do not have to spend time searching and installing cables to healthcare devices.
Next, the near future technologies of Table 4 are described by their effect on healthcare
worktime. 3D printing of pharmaceuticals could save the need of logistics delivering
medication. Artificial intelligence offers solutions more efficient, sharper, and quicker
diagnoses as well as its adoption has limitless other opportunities. Autonomous robotic
surgeries offer a true jackpot since replacing maybe the most highly salaried class of
personnel leads to remarkable cost savings. Blockchain can be saving the time of healthcare
personnel by bringing fluency to processes and easy access to patient data that could be
gathered by other healthcare provided. Computerized shoes and clothing can bring some
fluency to work with the data they offer. Diagnostic toilets may lead to less need of
laboratory personnel work and as well nursing personnel since they often are also responsible
of urinary samples. Medical tricorders utilization may save the time of nurses when patients
can do self-service in a more variety of vital sign data. Patients could even be sent home
faster with the help of tricorders which leads to savings in the needed nursing work. Powered
exoskeletons can help logistics personnel to be more efficient as well as offer patients with
moving problems possibility to get home from hospital or even go to work earlier which has
remarkable economical effect in the perspective of society. Programmable bacteria could
provide possibility to save the time of care if it could replace some more expensive
treatments.
21
6 Conclusion
The study managed to create a thorough general view of a comprehensive assortment of
disruptive technologies to aid the public healthcare system of Finland to sustain in the age
of rising costs, need of care and limited healthcare workforce resources. There was
discovered a list of disruptive technologies for managerial utilization to saving workforce
resources via the ways of digitalization. The healthcare providers certainly have considered
at least some of the opportunities, but every manager in a certain position to influence the
future choices of management related to utilizing these technologies should understand all
the findings of this study. Also, the politicians should consider the disruptive technologies
to drive appropriate laws and regulations for aiding the useful technologies to be utilized or
to guiding, recommending, and directing the public healthcare providers to the right
direction.
The same kind of study has not been conducted earlier, or at least it did not appear to the
student pair conducting this study during the literature review. The reliability of the study
would have been stronger if more literature sources would have been utilized in discovering
the disruptive technologies for healthcare. In addition, as technologies develop fast-paced, a
wider repertory, and more recent studies as sources would increase the reliability as well. As
a related limitation, the five years old table of disruptive technologies as the main data source
may have caused some relevant technologies with newer knowledge to have not been
considered in this study or some of the technologies may have lost their potential. Although,
these reliability issues and limitations were declined by benchmarking some more recent
studies.
As this study will not be shared to any managers or politicians and that could not be wise
considering the short period of research and limitations of the sources, the significance of
the study topic would recommend the matter to be explored more thoroughly. Research with
wider resources and time should be conducted to provide public healthcare management and
political control tools for sustaining the pressures and crisis they are living now and most
likely in the future as well.
22
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Appendix 1. Table of disruptive technologies
