By Ojaswita Kutepatil / Special to Healthcare Facilities Today

Health intelligent virtual assistant market is heavily disrupting the traditional healthcare methods, with IVAs being widely adopted to enable advanced patient care. As virtual health assistants are garnering massive popularity in the healthcare space, it has been found that patients are more often likely to interact with virtual characters.

However, the use of IVA technology is still in the nascent stages, and the industry experts predict that it will help healthcare providers to manage patients in a better manner, improve the adherence rate of treatments, reduce costs, and enhance the doctor-patient engagement. Voice recognition, advanced data analytics tools, text-to-speech approach, and novel user interfaces are some of the trending technologies buzzing with promise to spur health intelligent virtual assistant market growth.

Popular IVAs prevalent across health intelligent virtual assistant industry 

Some of the famous virtual personal assistants, which have gained immense recognition across the global medical fraternity are Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google’s Assistant. However, it is noteworthy to mention that not only tech giants, but even SMBs are involved in driving IVA technology, thereby emerging as key participants in health intelligent virtual assistant industry. An instance of this speculation is Next IT’s Alme of Healthcare, which is a virtual assistant that focuses on chronic disease management and can actively respond to a patient’s request and common queries. This tool is currently adopted on a massive scale by leading government organizations, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers.

Another notable example is that of Alegeus, a prominent health IVA industry behemoth, that has very recently introduced its voice-activated IVA for healthcare. ‘Emma’, as it is christened, is very much like other virtual assistants that provide effortless consumer experience and assist patients in getting value-based healthcare.

These instances are indicative of the dynamic involvement of health IVA industry players in tapping the potential of virtual assistant technology, which has most significantly driven health intelligent virtual assistant industry share in the last few years. The technological advancements in AI have also aided major healthcare IT behemoths to achieve remarkable breakthroughs in health IVA industry. A new Artificial Intelligence Systems Spending Guide has projected the expenditure on AI technologies to surge from USD 8 billion in 2016 to USD 47 billion by 2020.  

Health intelligent virtual assistant market trends depicted across North America

North America, being one of majorly developed regions that exhibits the latest trends of most business fraternities, was one of the leading contributors toward the overall health IVA industry share in 2016. The United States has been at the helm of this regional business space, evidence of the fact being, the U.S. accounting for more than 90% of North America health intelligent virtual assistant market share. This humongous contribution can be attributed to that fact that this country prominently incorporates novel technologies for product development and innovation.

Another key factor, that has propelled health intelligent virtual assistant market is the high expenditure associated with healthcare. As per a 2012 report by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. is anticipated to confront a shortfall of 91,500 doctors by 2020. Not surprisingly, the most obvious solution to this looming problem is the adoption of mobile healthcare apps and other medical care assisting apps. Taking into consideration the aforementioned circumstances, many industry experts witness virtual health assistance on the cusp of playing a major role in revolutionizing healthcare delivery. As a result, U.S. health intelligent virtual assistant market is expected to depict a remarkable momentum, owing to the fact that IVAs provide 24/7 access to patients by simply responding to texts and voice via smartphones.

While technology has always played a leading role in this ever-evolving healthcare industry, a significant wave of investment is expected from major health intelligent virtual assistant industry players across the globe. True Image Interactive, Nuance Communications, Next IT Corp., Microsoft Corporation, eGain Communications Pvt Ltd., Google, Inc., and CodeBaby Corp. are some of the most prominent companies accumulating a major share of the market pie. Recently, a progressive leader in healthcare IT, Lenovo Health, is collaborating with Orbita, to establish a path-breaking virtual home care solution, based on the unveiled products of both the companies – Orbita Voice and Lenovo Smart Assistant.

All in all, it is quite evident that, health IVA technology is being rapidly adopted by the industry giants and is gradually penetrating into the medical and pharmaceutical sectors. The active partaking of tech-firms is set to redefine the approach in which healthcare will be perceived in future. A report compiled by Global Market Insights, Inc., states the global health intelligent virtual assistant market to record a CAGR of 31% over 2017 to 2024.

How IVA deployment will reshape the healthcare sector, driving health IVA market trends in the future

The lack of skilled physicians to resolve patient queries with regards to their health is one of major factors that will substantially augment healthcare intelligent virtual assistant market. Addressing this need is going to be anything but easy, state experts. This is evident from the fact that in the United States alone, there is just one licensed physician who is available for around 370 people. Summating this issue with the alarming fact that more than 132 million American citizens suffer from at least one chronic ailment, has resulted in the consensus that this developed economy will witness a massive adoption of IVA’s, thereby augmenting the revenue share of North America health intelligent virtual assistant market.

Now, expanding this crucial issue beyond the American frontiers, it is noteworthy to mention that patients across major geographies require more than guideline-based answers for their queries, they need someone – someone to talk to and receive responses, much like a human, to help them stay abreast of their condition. In this scenario, analysts conclude that patient-centric virtual assistants that are suitably designed to respond to voice-operative questions, are most certainly the go-to option. This approach will lead to an extensive adoption of IVAs, thereby leading health intelligent virtual assistant market to carve out a rather profitable roadmap in the ensuing years.

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Ojaswita Kutepatil, a mechanical engineer, working as a BDE and Technical Engineer before switching her profession to content writing. Currently, she develops content for Global Market Insights, Inc.