The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been hastening digital transformation and the adoption of cloud-based SaaS platforms in the healthcare industry.
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The global telemedicine market is expected to reach $171 billion by 2026, and the healthcare cloud computing market is on its way to hitting $90.46 billion by 2027. In total, the digital healthcare market size for SaaS companies is expected to grow to $220.94 billion by 2026.
Reasons for this anticipated growth are many. SaaS platforms offer more than just a better way to store electronic health records (EHRs.) They help healthcare organizations deliver the right care in the right place and at the right time. Cloud technologies also offer an integrated and scalable foundation for healthcare organizations to grow their IT infrastructure.
Additionally, cloud platforms can help facilitate secure data sharing among organizations. This capability is invaluable for supporting global clinical trials, enabling researchers to tap into millions of data points from a large number of patients to generate real-time insights.
Meanwhile, healthcare leaders and CIOs face various operational challenges, such as rising costs, employee burnout, fast-evolving data privacy regulations and cybersecurity concerns. SaaS platforms that help address these issues are poised to experience rapid adoption in the next few years.
No wonder tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are entering the healthcare SaaS market with their own cloud for healthcare.
To capitalize on the fast-growing digital healthcare market size for SaaS companies, we must first understand how the healthcare SaaS market will evolve. Then, you can adapt current healthcare marketing techniques for SaaS companies to address your audience's specific challenges and requirements.
Here are the major healthcare SaaS market changes we anticipate in 2022 and beyond:
The pandemic has increased the demand for telehealth services. The global telehealth market was valued at $62.4 billion in 2021 and will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.5% from 2022 to 2028.
Telemedicine creates a win-win situation for patients and providers. More people can access high-quality care, even those living in remote places. Meanwhile, providers can treat more patients at a lower cost thanks to improved efficiency.
This trend will continue into 2022 and become an integral part of healthcare services. There are also many opportunities in the healthcare SaaS market for applications that support the adoption of wearable devices and growing digital health data points to augment telemedicine services.
As data collection and healthcare information exchange become easier with open API (application programming interface) facilitated by SaaS, ability to advance population health management continues. API allows organizations to migrate data between clouds or synchronize data with new ease. These capabilities are advantageous in unlocking data coming from the large and confusing mix of data holders and associated vendors across the healthcare industry. As data access is eased across care settings and among providers, payers, pharma and vendors, entities can begin to use data and uncover insights in new ways. Given this role, open API and interoperability are a growing priority for many. As one CIO publication notes: “The need for interoperability through APIs will guide SaaS decisions, as IT leaders try to design systems that can scale and adapt.”
The cost of healthcare data breaches reached $9.3 million per occurrence in 2021. Besides the costs of remediation actions, legal fees, and non-compliance penalties, organizations also suffer from lost business and tarnished reputation that would take years to repair.
However, it has become increasingly cost-prohibitive for healthcare facilities to hire a large in-house IT team to address cybersecurity concerns and monitor an on-premise infrastructure. HIPAA-complaint SaaS platforms have teams of security experts to ensure security and compliance, taking this major headache off their customers' plates.
While using a multi-cloud approach offer many benefits, it also comes with new security concerns and complexities. SaaS providers must step up to address these issues and offer secure and seamless integration and data exchange in the cloud.
AI-powered technologies have various uses in healthcare, many of which involve analyzing large amounts of data to generate real-time insights. SaaS platforms make these applications affordable and accessible to more organizations worldwide.
SaaS platforms can apply machine learning and predictive analytics software to collect data, recognize patterns, and detect potential security threats. Meanwhile, AI-powered chatbots and speech recognition technologies can help improve customer service and deliver timely patient communications without straining resources or increasing costs.
The use of these technologies in our everyday life has changed patient expectations. More healthcare organizations will implement SaaS platforms that leverage AI applications to help them process data, reduce costs, and improve the patient experience.
More SaaS platforms are zeroing in on providing solutions to particular industry verticals. This approach will likely surpass horizontal SaaS thanks to various benefits, such as the provision of highly specialized applications and seamlessly integrated workflows.
Vertical SaaS solutions are better positioned to address key performance indicators (KPIs) that focus on long-term results. They enable providers to access industry-specific intelligence and patient data for timely insights.
The approach also helps organizations better address information transparency, data governance, and compliance requirements to provide high-quality services and increase business value without driving up operational and administrative costs.
Understanding the driving forces behind these trends can help you create marketing communications that are relevant and appealing to your target audience to boost the effectiveness of current healthcare marketing techniques for SaaS companies.
For example, the right marketing agency can help you highlight how your technologies can support telemedicine, strengthen data security, improve patient experience, facilitate data sharing, or create efficient workflows to address the IT concerns that are top of mind for healthcare leaders and CIOs.
Ready to freshen up the messaging to augment your marketing strategy?
Working with a SaaS marketing agency with strong knowledge of healthcare market trends can help you position your brand as a leader in the IT space. Schedule a time to chat with us to see how we can help.
