Hey buddies! Welcome back. Today we are going to discuss healthcare technologies. First of all, let me give you a brief idea about healthcare.
Basically, Healthcare is the chain of efforts executed in order to maintain, improve or restore the physical or mental health of people. Healthcare involves practices such as diagnosis, healing injuries, treatment, and various tests to examine mental or physical health.
And technology is the use of advanced techniques, skills, and technical processes and new ways to enhance the productivity and efficiency of any work or to accomplish any object.
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Healthcare Technologies
In recent years, healthcare technology has made significant strides in transforming the healthcare industry. The widespread adoption of electronic health records has improved the sharing of patient information between healthcare providers, leading to better-coordinated care.
Telemedicine has made it possible for patients to access healthcare services from the comfort of their own homes, reducing the need for in-person visits. Wearable devices and mobile health apps are helping individuals monitor their health and wellness, and AI-powered tools are being used to support medical professionals in making more accurate diagnoses and treatment decisions.
According to, to the World Health Organisation (WHO) “Healthtech, is the application of well-organized skills and knowledge in a semblance of machines, procedure, devices, and system to cure any physical or mental disease and to increase life expectancy.”
Healthcare technology refers to the application of technology to improve the delivery of healthcare services. This can include digital tools for patient management, telemedicine, electronic health records, wearable devices for monitoring health, and artificial intelligence in medicine, among others. The goal of healthcare technology is to increase efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and make healthcare more accessible and affordable.
History of Healthcare technologies:
The concept of these advanced healthcare technologies had raised in the early 1960s, as the forward thinkers used to talk about the use of advanced technologies in the field of healthcare. With the passage of time, some data standards were set and policies were made in order to encourage healthcare organizations to implement the use of computer machines for healthcare systems for the practices such as diagnosis and record maintaining.
And, with time when the technologies developed and the cost of computers was low, the healthcare technologies raised.
Applications of Healthcare technologies:
In the modern world, numerous numbers of advanced technologies are used in order to increase the efficiency and precision of the healthcare system.
Some of the useful technologies are mentioned below:
1.) The Electronic Health Record: The EHR is the well-organized and systematic collection of patients records in digital format in the healthcare system database. Electronic Health Record is the most effective way to store the data of patients and professionals of a healthcare system in computer systems. EHR came into use in recent years.
Since 2009 there were only 16 healthcare centers in the U.S. that were using EHR. The use of EHR has saved the efforts and time of the healthcare system and it has made the data records more efficient and handleable.
2.) mHealth: mHealth is the other word used for mobile health, which means practicing public health with the coordination of mobile technologies.
It is also used for monitoring, analysis, and sharing the health information of patients using mobile devices.
Some of the mobile technologies used under mHealth are mentioned below:
- PDAs – personal digital assistants
- Mobile phone
- Patient monitoring devices
- Smart wearables
- Health tracking apps
These all aspects of mHealth are useful for the fastest diagnosis and fewer fallacies.
3.) Portable defibrillator: portable defibrillator is also known as AEDs (automated external defibrillators). This defibrillator has exponentially helped in maintaining and enhancing public health. The work of this defibrillator is to automatically sense the life-menacing cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation.
The AEDs is only used in the case of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) of if the heart all of a sudden stop pumping.
4.) Automated IV Pumps: Automated IV pumps or also known as infusion pump is a technological device used by healthcare systems for servicing the delivery of fluids in a specific volume at a specified rate.
These automated pumps help in reducing the following errors:
- Errors in quantity of fluids is one of the major problems solved by the IV pumps
- Nurses cannot keep an exact count of time. So, the IV pumps also reduce the errors in the duration of flow of fluid
- Last but not the least is rate of administration
5.) Smart medical beds: smart medical beds are used in healthcare systems for monitoring and taking care of patients and preventing falls of patients. In smart medical beds, sensors are placed under mattresses of beds. These sensors provide the nurses with data on the sleeping patterns of patients. It also provides information about the weight and even the vitals of patients. With the help of smart beds, nurses do not need to check multiple times for the comfort and safety of patients and this saves their time and energy.
Smart beds play an important role in the comfort and safety of patients during a long hospital stay.
As the two faces of coin healthcare technologies also have two sides, one represents its advantages and the other are its disadvantages.
Some of the advantages of healthcare technologies are mentioned below:
1.) Decreased Human Errors: technologies in the healthcare system have decreased the possibilities or chances of errors\mistakes in the healthcare system. This is one of the most prominent advantages of healthcare technologies, as even a small mistake by the hospital staff can risk the lives of innocent patients.
2.) Decreased need for Nurses: The technologies in hospitals have also reduced the need for staff or nurses as the automatic monitoring system does not need nurses to monitor the health of patients. This advantage saves the time of hospital staff and their efforts.
3.) Provides daily records and updates: healthcare technologies have provided various devices and machines which provide the owner or patient with health updates and analysis of reports. This helps in tracking any disorder or disease at an early stage and helps in better treatment.
Along with all these benefits, healthcare technologies have some disadvantages too. These disadvantages are listed below:
1.) Cybersecurity Risks: Cybersecurity risks are in the healthcare system too. If any data that is used by doctors or healthcare professionals is deleted or changed, this can result in the wrong treatment of the patient and this can be life-threatening.
2.) Expensive: Healthcare technologies are very expensive to implement. That is the main problem for the lack of technologies in the healthcare system.
3.) Increased unemployment: As these technologies are growing, the need for healthcare professionals is decreasing. This results in the increasing unemployment of nurses and hospital staff.
4.) lack of knowledge: healthcare technologies are advanced and people need the knowledge to use these technologies. Hence these technologies can be frustrating for elder patients who are not aware of technologies.
Conclusion
healthcare technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we deliver and receive medical care. While there are still challenges to overcome, such as concerns about privacy and security, the increasing trend towards digitalization in healthcare is likely to continue. By leveraging technology, healthcare providers can deliver better, more efficient care to their patients, and individuals can take a more proactive approach to manage their own health.