03 Mar HEALTHCARE SERVICES TO WATCH
Healthcare services speak to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments for humans. There are many types of healthcare services geared towards maintaining and restoring health through various institutions, providers, and products.
Primary healthcare services involve a patient’s main doctor or provider. This includes family medicine physicians, pediatricians, internal medicine doctors, and general practitioners who offer comprehensive, first-contact care covering a range of basic services like check-ups, acute diagnoses, chronic disease management, vaccinations, and screenings.
Specialty healthcare offers services dealing with specific diseases, body areas or types of patients through experts like oncologists for cancer, cardiologists for hearts, obstetricians for pregnancy, psychiatrists for mental health, surgeons, allergists, dermatologists and hundreds more types.
Allied health services include healthcare professions like physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, dieticians, pharmacists, psychologists, audiologists, paramedics, social workers and others helping diagnose, treat, rehabilitate and provide support care.
Long term care services like skilled nursing, assisted living, adult daycare, hospice and home health provide oversight, aid with daily living, protection, and care management for chronic conditions or disability among elderly and other patients with extensive needs.
Alternative medical services involve complementary and integrative approaches that tend to be outside standard care like acupuncture, naturopathy, chiropractics, homeopathy, massage therapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine and more.
Direct-to-consumer healthcare products include over-the-counter medicines, supplements, fertility or pregnancy self-test kits, wearable health devices, personal DNA tests, ankle braces, compression stockings and thousands more mass retail items.
With extensive services spanning lifestyle, prevention, diagnosis, acute care, chronic disease maintenance, rehabilitation and consumer health products, the expansive healthcare ecosystem aims to comprehensively care for populations across the lifecycle through many access points.