Technology permeates all spheres of human life. It promotes the flow of ideas, knowledge, and services around the globe. Technology changes the way people travel, shop, do business, and communicate. Moreover, technology is making massive inroads into the healthcare industry. It offers new opportunities for both patients and doctors and continuously improves the quality of countless people’s lives. To deliver exceptional outcomes in the future, we need to unleash the power of technology and start to reap the benefits. Presently, lots of people who lead a healthy life and do their best to stay in good shape also rely on technology. Litslink.com has created an exhaustive list of health benefits modern technology presents us with. You can familiarize yourself with this list right now and figure out how you can avail yourself of health and wellness technologies. And then you can go on reading our article and learn about the major breakthroughs in the medical space that were inspired by technology.
# 1 Digitization of Medical Files
The significance of recording the history of a patient’s illnesses is unquestionable. Still, apart from patient history, there are tons of other medical documents that are critical to improving overall efficiency and quality of healthcare. Technology made it possible to replace outdated paper-based medical records with convenient Electronic Health Records (EHRs). EHRs made it possible to significantly improve care for patients, make the treatment process more transparent, reduce medical errors, make a diagnosis more effectively, and help maximize healthcare providers’ overall productivity.
# 2 Nanomedicine
Nanomedicine is probably the most effective technology being developed. It involves the manipulation of atoms and molecules at the atomic level of 1 to 100 nanometers. A nanometer is extremely small considering that the period in the sentence is 1 million nanometers in length. Nanomedicine is particularly promising for diagnosing, treating, and preventing various diseases more accurately. Nanomedicine is a also huge step towards battling impenetrable diseases like cancer.
# 3 3D Printing Technology
Since its creation, 3D printing has developed immensely. Now the technology allows for easier reconstruction of prototypes. People are developing cheaper, more effective prosthetics and polypills so far cheaper than before. This has changed the way we look at organ transplants and tissue repair.
# 4 Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is making the biggest splash in healthcare, and it’s projected to do so even more. It has several applications in the healthcare space from clinical work to image analysis. AI could actually save many countries’ healthcare economy over a hundred and fifty billion dollars. Since it represents an obvious money saving potential, thousands of enterprises start investing in the AI technology.
# 5 Healthcare Blockchain Technology
By now you’re more than likely heard of Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency turning pizza delivery boys into millionaires. Stories like that have sparked a gold rush in the development and use of blockchain. However, what is blockchain? Blockchain is an independent database that exists over several locations owned by a specific community. The plan for the healthcare industry is to create a massive independent database that centralizes the EMRs, mentioned earlier on our list. As confusing as that may sound this is big news for the healthcare industry.
# 6 Virtual Healthcare
Virtual healthcare, also known as telemedicine, creates remote communication between doctors and patients. Video apps coupled with wearable technology allow healthcare providers to monitor patients and provide emergency assistance. Virtual healthcare technology dramatically increases convenience and cuts travel times. Virtual technology will undoubtedly be a necessity if the predicted physician shortage comes to fruition.
# 7 Robotics Technology
Robotic surgery may maybe the first and recent renovation to be implemented. The use of robotics significantly increases surgery success rates and minimizes the impact on patients through minimally invasive procedures. This technology coupled with artificial technology is also a powerful tool to solve the staffing issue and combat the shortage.
# 8 Virtual Reality Technology
Virtual reality is already massive in the entertainment industry and even in the military for training purposes. Healthcare is the next industry to take on virtual reality. Virtual reality is the immersive sensory tech that has created uses for both doctors and patients. For physicians, hospitals have begun using VR to train staff in simulations that have deficient risk factor. As for patients, it has been found that VR has rehabilitation and therapeutic benefits. VR is a cost effective practice. So hospitals have begun its widespread implementation.
Conclusion
We live in the world of innovation, disruption, and change. How we provide care is also rapidly evolving. The healthcare industry is among the leading industries to embrace the influx of technology innovations in recent years. From data analytics, helping connect patients to the right physicians, to artificial intelligence assistants who can handle massive workloads of data… The future is bright in healthcare technology and isn’t as far off as previously thought. Look out for the aforementioned technologies being put to use in your hospital soon!
