Top 3 Ways Technology Has Improved Healthcare
With each passing year, technology offers more and more advances that improve healthcare for everyone involved. From patients to family care providers to specialists and hospitals, there isn’t a branch of medicine or dentistry that hasn’t benefited from these ongoing advances. Here are just three ways in which technology has improved healthcare.
1. Allowing Patients to Be Proactive in Their Care Plan
While everyone has been touting the benefits of wearables because they communicate functions within the body directly to the provider, it seems like those very same people have forgotten the benefit of the Internet. Patients now have the capability to go on sites like Health Row to learn about conditions they have been diagnosed with or common concerns they may have in plain, ordinary everyday English.
They can now cut through the jargon on sites like the National Library of Medicine, which is provided by doctors and scientists around the world, but not in a language the layperson can usually understand. With this information in hand, patients can not only stay better informed but they can ask intelligent questions when visiting their providers.
2. Accuracy in Diagnostics
Every single day, technology is being developed to improve diagnostics. From various scans being developed to decoding genetic markers associated with specific illnesses and diseases, diagnostics is probably the one big push towards greater accuracy in diagnosing and treating patients. One example would be technology based on Google Earth imaging that enables doctors and medical scientists to get what is being referred to as a “navigational view of the brain.”
Previously, scans enabled doctors to see what would be compared with a view of earth from outer space. This new technology is more like how Google Earth enables you to view earth right down to the street level with clear and accurate images of structures on properties. Now it is possible to see how the brain functions on a neural level, which is an amazing breakthrough by a team of researchers from the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, Argonne National Laboratory, Northwestern University, and the University of Pennsylvania.
3. Rapid Response Times and Greater Mobility
What doctor do you know who doesn’t carry a cell phone? Not only can doctors and patients move about more freely because they carry a smartphone, but response times are greatly improved when technology worn by the patients communicates with providers that certain triggers have been set off. Providers can immediately communicate with that patient, no matter where the doctor or patient happens to be, simply because they have a smartphone with them.
Also, when a patient is in crisis, there is no longer a need to page the doctor and await a callback. That provider can be reached instantly to give instructions for immediate care. Of course, doctors need to utilize this technology in order to receive the benefits from it, but a greater number of doctors are making themselves available in this way.
These are just three of the top ways in which technology is improving and advancing healthcare. Not mentioned would be the sharing of data through Electronic Health Records or Electronic Medical Records. There are just so many advances that they are too numerous to elaborate but the key takeaway is that more lives will be saved and enriched all thanks to technological advances.
