The Future of Health and Entertainment: Technology Benefits Amidst the Pandemic

The world presently faces a huge healthcare crisis, in managing the coronavirus. So, it is only ideal to talk about healthcare solutions. However, when a virus is sweeping through the world is not the best time to discuss a 'trivial' issue such as entertainment. More so, where is the connection between the two?

Indeed, entertainment, particularly gaming, has grown to be an important escape for many people trying to find a way to cope with the overwhelming distress of the pandemic. Besides, in view of the fact that the virus' spread and infectiousness means people have to stay away from each other, gaming, and entertainment in general, has provided a way for people to maintain connections.

Also, this virus outbreak has revealed so many aspects of healthcare that are broken. And this article explores how solutions from various tech companies can help close the gap.

The Impacts of the Pandemic on Entertainment

The impacts of global restrictions on movement are heavily felt in the entertainment industry. Shows are being cancelled, cinemas and theatres closed, and the box office is recording low earnings due to the fact that the release dates of major movies are being postponed. However, these impacts are not all negative.

In fact, the pandemic has rather been a sort of disruptor of traditional modes. Therefore, while box office records plummet because people are unable to go to the cinema, movie streaming services, like Netflix, on the other hand, are gaining big as viewership surges.

A recent study confirmed this after it found that 75% of respondents (which consists mainly of people below 35) have higher streaming views than before the virus outbreak. The implication of this is that, even when the cinemas are reopened, the competition between them and streaming services would have become much stiffer.

All these sets the pace for the future of entertainment, as the industry goes through a major transformation by becoming increasingly digital. For instance, while the global media and entertainment industry is projected to make 2.6 trillion in 2023, digital revenue accounts for greater than 60% of that amount.

Achieving this would, in no small measure, be due to the proliferation of VR content, both for gaming and for movies.

In the foreseeable future, we can expect virtual reality headsets to be more mainstream, so that people can play games more realistically and watch movies from anywhere, uninterrupted.

That would deal another blow to the cinemas.

But this would be a necessary evolvement, as, over the years, there has been an increased focus on the customer experience that prioritizes personalization.

The Impact of the Pandemic on Health

The elevation of the customer experience factor is not limited to the entertainment industry only. It is sweeping through every industry as newer technologies take the fore. The health sector is not left behind.

With the advent of technologies such as artificial intelligence, AR/VR, 3D printing, etc. healthcare becomes increasingly digital as well. Informed by the pandemic, some of these changes, hitherto predicted for the future, have begun taking place.

For instance, social distancing regulations have meant that most patients, with the exception of those in critical condition, can no longer visit the doctor’s office.

This has accelerated the adoption of telemedicine. Telemedicine has a range of benefits, including reducing the risk of patients with communicable diseases transmitting them to other patients, staff, and visitors.

It is also a patient-centred healthcare delivery model as appointments are worked around the patient’s schedule for more convenient access to healthcare. But it serves the healthcare providers as well by reducing the strain on their facilities.

Such a transformation means that there would be a shift in focus from reactive healthcare to predictive provision. Considering that patients and healthcare providers no longer have to be in the same spaces, there would yet be a massive increase in medical IoT devices for tracking and monitoring patients’ health conditions. This would enable specialists to detect issues before they become critical.

It is thus easy to see why the pandemic is a tipping point for healthcare and even after we conquer coronavirus globally, the status quo would have transformed significantly.

Conclusion

The technology revolution is sweeping through every industry, from agriculture to business, and healthcare to entertainment. It is especially important that mistakes made before and during the pandemic outbreak are avoided afterwards. Of course, this requires the concerned companies to embrace innovative tech solutions.

Technology has become more important now than ever. The drivers of the next revolution include AI, IoT, and AR/VR. Companies that don't embrace these solutions going forward will be left behind. In the meantime, finding a solution to the current crisis is what is on everybody's mind. But afterwards, the competition would grow tougher as companies try to regain lost time and gain an upper hand as quickly as possible.