Digital and Biotechnology Healthcare Trends for 2022

Every year brings new digital technologies and biotechnology wonders. Not all of these technologies live up to their promises. That is why medical technologies are often regulated at the federal and state levels by the FDA, FTC, and other agencies. Medical companies need to comply with the applicable laws. Medical practices need to understand their digital healthcare compliance issues too.

There are laws that govern how these technologies can receive government approval as medical devices and what companies can say and do to promote their products. There are referral laws such as Stark and the AKS that govern when and how medical practices can work with companies who sell these technologies.

According to Forbes, the biotech market is expected to pass $100 billion in 2022. Some of the work in biotechnology that medical providers and patients can expect in 2022 include the following:

Personalized medicine

In the past, most drugs and medications were designed on a “one-size-fits-all” basis. Part of the strategy behind clinical trials was to try to determine which formulations will benefit the broadest segment of the US population. With modern genomics, there is a movement to design the formulations on an individual basis – depending on the patient’s DNA. Part of the reason this trend towards individualized medicine is expected to expand in 2022 is that that cost for sequencing DNA has dropped from a high of $3 billion for the first human genome in 2003 – to the low current price of $600.

Knowledge of how DNA affects our ability to fight disease makes it easier to “predict segments of the population where illness is likely to occur, make better diagnoses, and create targeted treatments dependent on individual genetic factors.”

Personalized medicine is used to:

• Understand how an individual’s genetic makeup affects the way cancerous cells may grow and spread – which can then affect the treatment that is provided.
• To provide pre-emptive treatment for patients whose genetic makeup makes the patients susceptible to certain types of illnesses.

The expectation is that personalized medicine will expand in 2022 – and result in better treatments for many different diseases.

Agricultural biotechnology

Forbes states that biotechnology is helping farmers develop crops that are more resistant to pests and diseases – and provide stronger yields. For various reasons, many people worldwide are at risk of starvation. Biotechnology will be used to grow food that is better for our health because the food is richer in nutrients and lower in toxins.

Biotech will also be used in 2022 and beyond to reduce the damage to the environment, produce crops that are resilient, and lessen the need for pesticides – which should produce less pollution and water runoffs. Biotechnology should also help create crops “to remove pollution caused by industrial activity from land, enabling that land to be revegetated – a process known as phytoremediation.”

Biotechnology will also be used to create crops such as Tropic Biosciences’ (a UK company) caffeine-free coffee beans – which means there will not be a need for a costly decaffeination process – which creates waste and pollutes.

The opportunities in agricultural biotechnology will need to be balanced with ethical concerns about the safety of the food supply and the risk of “ecological damage that genetically modified crops themselves might cause to natural environments.”

Quicker pharmaceutical testing and approval of medicines

The emergency development and approval of the various COVID-19 vaccines shows just how important it is to make the testing and approval by the FDA of drugs faster. Fast development can save lives provided quality standards are met. Biotechnology is helping to make this research and approval process mover faster. Normally, the approval of new drugs can take up to 10 years. Biotechnology helps to speed the testing and approval process through simulations of “interactions between medicines and the human body.” These simulations are less expensive and less-time consuming than using human trials for every stage of the drug testing and approval process.

For example, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Real-Time Oncology Review program has benefited greatly from the use of biotech data – in large part, because of its ability to “accurately predict testing outcomes of trials of novel cancer treatments. “

Another example of biotech innovation is “pharmaceutical developer Biogen, whose first-of-its-kind treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, aducanumab, was rapidly accelerated thanks to advances made in biotech this year.”

More drugs are expected to be approved in 2022 and future years due to advances in biotech research.

Environmental biotechnology

Biotechnology will help protect the environment, in ways other than efficient crop production such as “the creation of biological organisms specifically designed to break down plastics, enabling them to be more efficiently recycled.”

For example, in 2021, French company Carbois used genetically modified enzymes when the company opened its first plant dedicated to breaking down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic which is regularly used in plastic bottles. Other biotech-derived enzymes are being used to “create new types of detergent that are powerful enough to be used in industrial cleaning processes while also being completely biodegradable, rather than generating toxic waste as with other industrial detergents.”

Artificial meat

Another 2022 biotechnology trend will be eating artificial meat. Since eating meat impacts the environment, biotechnology is being used to create artificial and lab-grown meat – for those people who aren’t vegetarians. This biotechnology is an outgrowth of medical technology. The lab-meat technology sems from technology used to repair injuries by regrowing damaged cells – such as growing skin cells so the cells can be grafted onto burn victims.

Digital healthcare innovations for 2022

Digital technology is a major component of any healthcare practice. Already there are federal and state laws that regulate digital healthcare. For starters, HIPAA is a federal law that provides protection to patients regarding the use and transfer of electronic health records. Digital technology helps with patient care, the administration of a medical practice, the productivity of health services, and expanded healthcare access to distant parts of the state.

Decipherzone states that according to World Health Organization (WHO), “Healthcare technology is the application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures, and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of lives.” These healthcare technologies can consist of pharmaceuticals, organizational systems, devices and procedures.

Decipherzone thinks that the following trends will be prominent in 2022. Many of these areas are already fairly robust. Developers and businesses do need to understand that as new technology comes into existence or matures, these companies will need to review the laws and regulations that govern their innovations with an experienced healthcare lawyer.

Artificial intelligence

Healthcare practices and facilities are gathering more and more data. There’s simply no way that humans can analyze all the data there is. That’s why artificial intelligence programs are being used to sift through all data (from sensors, images, text, devices, and records) to try to discover trends (and anomalies) that can improve patient care and help medical researchers develop better medical treatments.

Cloud technology

Cloud technology isn’t just being used to store data. Hybrid cloud environments help medical practices and hospitals move data to where the data is secure and accessible – while staying in compliance with HIPAA and other federal and state patient protection laws.

Blockchain technology

This new technology will be used to secure and make patient data anonymous – while “offering interoperability and transparency over distributed, diverse and highly fragmented systems in healthcare.”

Telehealth

The ability for patients and doctors to connect through the Internet instead of in-person was starting to expand even before the pandemic. Telemedicine helps patients in rural communities receive the medical help patients need and helps patients who need help after-hours get medical help. Telemedicine helps patients meet with more specialists who often aren’t local to where the patient lives.

The pandemic has only increased the desire and need to use telehealth services. Most medical practices include some form of telehealth services. As the ease of using the technology gets better and friendlier, more medical practices will be using telehealth in 2022.

There are laws that regulate the use of telehealth services within a state and across state lines.

Interoperability

Interoperability means “the seamless exchange of data across organizations and systems.” Interoperability makes it possible for patients and healthcare providers to exchange and access data. Interoperability helps reduce the need for unnecessary tests and enables doctors to make fasters diagnoses.

Robotic surgery

Robot-assisted technology helps surgeons perform complex procedures with better control and precision than standard surgeries. Robotic surgery normally includes a camera, a mechanical arm, and surgical instruments. These instruments are controlled by the surgeon through a computer “that gives the surgeon a magnified and highly defined 3-D view of the surgical area.”  Surgeons are already using robotic surgery for some types of care. The use of robotic surgery is expected to continue in 2022.

Smart Inhalers

Inhalers with digital technology are linked to an app on your smartphone – that help doctors and patients better manage the patient’s asthma. Some inhalers even have sensors that remind patients when an inhaler is needed.

IoT and Medicine

The Internet of Things includes wearable devices, monitors, and other applications that connect vital patient data to the Internet.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

These types of digital technologies have a variety of applications that can be used to train surgeons, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Virtual and augmented technology can also be used for chronic pain management and a patient’s mental health.

Machine Learning

Machine learning is another way, in addition to artificial intelligence, to examine data to detect patterns than can be used to assess a patient’s health. Machine learning will also be used to develop drugs, find new drugs, and improve the pharmaceutical industry.

Machine learning can work through “genetic details and will determine how individual health will react in certain circumstances.”

What are the benefits of digital healthcare technologies?

Some of the overall benefits of digital healthcare technology include:

• A better experience for the patient. With digital technology, patient information can be measured, organized, and stored so that the results can be reviewed to spot patient problems that need to be addressed – and to find ways to improve patient outcomes.
• Flexibility for clinicals and patients. Telemedicine gives patients another way to communicate with their healthcare provider. Wearable technology helps clinicians find ways to “calculate the well-being of their patients.” Symptoms can be reviewed and analyzed in real time.
• Real-time exchange of information. “With the integration of technologies like Blockchain, AI and Cloud, it becomes easier to securely store patients records and have access to it whenever needed.”

Biotechnology and digital technologies will continue to innovate, develop new businesses, and expand current businesses in 2022. The practice of medicine will become even more patient-oriented. New technologies will improve the diagnose of diseases and the treatment patients uses. All these technologies need to be vetted with an experienced healthcare lawyer who works to explain what laws apply and how medical practices and companies can comply with these laws – and the consequences for non-compliance.

Biotech and digital technology companies should contact Cohen Healthcare Law Group, PC to discuss FDA compliance, referrals, the unauthorized practice of medicine, and many other federal and state laws. Our experienced healthcare attorneys help health providers and health companies understand their compliance requirements.