Healthcare has always been a priority simply because it’s a necessity. The advancement of healthcare technology that happens today might seem to be enough to assist individuals with health complications and health workers. But the truth is, it’s always never enough. With great demand comes the constant research and development (R&D) for the greater good. If you find yourself struggling to understand its concept, here’s an overview of what healthcare technology is all about.
What Is Healthcare Technology?
One of the most crucial aspects of our modern world is the quality of healthcare for the patients. Undoubtedly, a driving influence behind efficient and enhanced healthcare is the integration of technology.
In today’s modern world, many physicians have provided better treatments and diagnoses through the help of healthcare technology. Without a doubt, it has definitely improved the lives of many patients. This is by making the processes within hospital facilities more efficient and personalizing treatment plans.
Out of the many industries that technology revolutionizes the process, healthcare is one of the most crucial. Without healthcare, many people may suffer, lives may be lost, and all of the technological innovations would be in vain. After all, who will patronize the technological advancements in the world if people are getting sick and dying? Let alone, when a pandemic happens.
Also known as “health tech,” healthcare technology is the process of using advanced technologies created for the primary purpose of improving and revolutionizing all aspects within the healthcare system. It refers to the application of I.T. to boost healthcare management and patient care productivity. Healthcare technology also provides new insights into treatment plans and medications. It includes improvement of overall patient care.
Understanding the Importance of Healthcare Technology
With expensive costs and red tapes, the healthcare industry suffers a standstill at the crossroads. As a result, the industry is constantly searching for methods to improve overall healthcare management and patient care. It also aims to eliminate too many bureaucracies hindering such improvements. This is the part where healthcare technology is important. The integration of I.T. and software development in healthcare will address the major issues and provide two important components. These are the efficiency and quality of healthcare.
Through healthcare technology, it has become more accessible and attainable to a wider group of people. With predictive analysis and AI in healthcare, facilities are more streamlined and patient queues are declining. Also, the recovery period and surgical operations are being significantly lowered. All made possible by precise robotic technology in assisting operations and providing less invasive procedures.
Healthcare accessibility and more streamlined healthcare management are remarkable, but how are innovations addressing these needs? Hospitals that have integrated healthcare technology deliver a more efficient process by personalized treatments to every patient. These healthcare facilities have certainly believed that proper patient care isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy; hence, tailoring patients to personalized treatment is important.
By customizing every patient’s healthcare experience, healthcare technology companies are strengthening human health. The technology also eliminates unnecessary inconveniences within the healthcare industry.
Indeed, healthcare technology has bridged the gap between modern healthcare and traditional practices. Ineffectiveness in manufacturing drugs, long queuing, hefty fees and limited access to healthcare facilities are constantly being improved, strengthened, and revolutionized by healthcare technology.
How Technology Has Changed
The application of healthcare technology is seemingly unlimited. Implementation of such technological feats in the healthcare industry can be found in everything, ranging from surgical operations to cancer treatments and healthcare management procedures. Its primary goal is to deliver efficiency throughout the healthcare industry. Also, it provides an all-new improved patient experience, making it as painless and effective as possible.
Diagnostics and Error Reduction
With healthcare technology, the healthcare sector is now implementing a diverse range of advanced equipment and tools. This is to address the issues related to improper diagnosis. By integrating healthcare technology tools into pathology, genetics, and other crucial diagnostic components, healthcare facilities can now detect early signs of cancer and other deadly diseases with greater precision instead of simply relying on human intervention alone.
Drug Development
Pharmaceutical companies are relying more and more on machine learning and artificial intelligence. The aim is to create and improve an all-new wave of drug development and research. With healthcare technology, numerous tools and equipment are being utilized to accelerate lengthy procedures such as identifying specific chemical combinations that help develop an optimal drug. Also, tech-infused tools can identify patients who can highly benefit from specific drug trials.
Fitness
The integration of healthcare technology has boosted the fitness industry in terms of an all-new approach to health and fitness. A variety of healthcare technology companies have created different kinds of apps, wearables, and other essentials that perform a diverse range of fitness-related activities. They range from monitoring our calorie intake to tracking our daily steps and measuring our sleeping patterns. Its primary mission is to address the increasing need for fitness-related tools. It also includes preventable expenses within the healthcare industry.
Healthcare Law
As healthcare technology continues to transform, laws and regulations related to healthcare must be well-established and adjusted to adapt to the new ways of providing and managing healthcare. Regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and its corresponding Privacy and Security Act are responsible for ensuring the confidentiality of patient records and information. It also includes the steps to maintain security and privacy in the modern world. Healthcare facilities and medical providers must be cautious when implementing new technologies and products into their services. They must ensure that all improvements are compliant with HIPAA before implementation.
Healthcare Management
Through the application of I.T. within the healthcare industry, many apps, tools, and software integrations have made healthcare management easier and more efficient. Healthcare technology has addressed the increasing demands of administrative workloads. AI assists each hospital’s administrative team to streamline patient influx by predicting peak schedules for staff management. Calculating patient queuing times are also now with greater accuracy. Also, numerous apps have been developed to ask patients a set of preliminary questions and scheduling management for physicians to efficiently use and maximize their time.
Information Technology
Without a doubt, information technology has made a significant impact on the healthcare industry. With the surge of mobile technologies, telemedicine services, and electronic medical records, doctors and patients have definitely felt the advantages that healthcare technology has brought.
With healthcare technology, telemedicine services have become essential in connecting physicians and doctors who are even miles apart. It’s not uncommon nowadays to see tablets and mobile phones inside your physician’s clinic for administering patient records.
Nowadays, more and more healthcare facilities and methods are using healthcare technology-related tools such as mobile devices. As a result, any type of information they require is just a tap away. CT scans, MRI scans, and X-Rays are some of the crucial results of healthcare technology to assess potential health threats and access digital information.
Medical Research
Medical researchers, scientists, and physicians are constantly looking for new ways and performing research. They are responsible for new strategies to prevent, treat, and cure different kinds of diseases. They also develop new medications and drugs to cure diseases and reduce symptoms.
Through healthcare technology in medical research, scientists can examine the nature of diseases on a comprehensive cellular level and produce antibodies to fight them through a vaccine. Vaccines against life-threatening diseases such as polio, influenza, and other contagious diseases prevent the spread of the virus and save millions of people around the globe.
Psychology and Mental Health
The mental health sector is one of the budding industries that have greatly benefited from healthcare technology. With Virtual Reality equipment, it has paved the way to diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s, PTSD, and depression. Through advanced therapies, patients gradually train their mental state to develop immunity from past traumas until they’ll no longer be affected negatively from such incidents. Another noteworthy accomplishment of healthcare technology in the mental health sector is the development of telemedicine apps. Through telemedicine apps, healthcare professionals and counselors have easier access to provide open lines of communication and support towards their patients. That said, it eliminates scheduling and waiting times for in-person appointments during times of distress.
Surgical Procedures
With the advancement of technology, surgery has become one of the most improved aspects of the healthcare industry in terms of efficiency. Through healthcare technology, numerous robots have been created to assist in a variety of surgical procedures, ranging from open-heart surgeries to non-invasive minor operations. These robots become surgical assistants and come in different sizes and shapes, including tiny bots crawling the surface of different vital organs and giant arms that work as an additional hand during surgical operations.
However, robots aren’t only the tech-infused equipment to be used in surgical procedures. A diverse range of augmented and virtual reality equipment have assisted physicians and surgeons to accomplish specific tasks such as integrating new surgical techniques and providing better surgical procedures to patients.
What Is the Future of Healthcare Technology?
The future of healthcare technology is slowly becoming a reality right in front of our very eyes. It has developed an array of digital healthcare tools and equipment such as nanotechnology, robotics, augmented and virtual reality, and AI. It integrates data on every patient’s financial information, insurance provider, real-time health status, and medical record all to advocate for reduced costs, enhanced patient care, and health, and effective decision-making.
The future of healthcare technology is directly proportional to people working together to willingly adopt emerging healthcare innovations. It’s important to stay consistent and relevant in the years to come.
3D Printing
Through healthcare technology, pharmaceutical and healthcare facilities can now print blood vessels, pills, artificial arms, and bio tissues for their advantage. With 3D Printing, it’s easier to provide treatment plans and come up with a better diagnosis.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is one of the common aspects of healthcare technology that’ll revolutionize the healthcare industry. Through AI algorithms, it’s faster, easier, and more efficient to develop new drugs, create personalized treatment plans, and my medical records. AI can perform virtual research from existing and safe medications that could be reformed to treat new viruses. Through AI, the healthcare industry will benefit from the predictive analysis that is vital to disrupting medical imaging to creating new drugs to mining medical data of different patients.
Augmented Reality
Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality offers a more realistic approach for medical professionals. AR puts pieces of information and data right in front of their eyes. That said, augmented reality is one of the driving influences in the future of healthcare technology. Through AR, medical professionals become well-prepared and more proficient when handling real-life surgeries. Using AR, medical students can provide accurate, comprehensive, and virtual depictions of the anatomy of the human body. As a result, they can study without needing real human bodies.
Drug Development
Another noteworthy aspect of healthcare technology is crucial in drug trials. It powers leads to computer-intervention individualization that will utilize in the development and evaluation of a medical device, intervention, and product. Through healthcare technology, it’s possible to study with an organs-on-a-chip basis and a virtual model of the anatomy of the human body. In times of pandemic, thousands of virtual patients can manufacture to test the efficiency and safety of new potential drugs and vaccines. That said, it’s faster and safer to test on a virtual patient instead of an actual human body.
Fitness and Healthcare Wearables
The future of healthcare technology is associate significantly with the advocacy of patients and individuals to take good care of their health through advanced technologies. Because of healthcare technology, you can now purchase sensors, wearables, and health monitoring devices as well as fitness apps to track your overall well being. Indeed, the possibilities are endless when it comes to integrating healthcare technology for monitoring your overall fitness.
Genome Sequencing
Many healthcare technology companies are developing DNA sequencing machines that make it possible to purchase your whole genome within one day for only less than $100. As a result, you’ll have the opportunity to purchase a more affordable genetic test instead of the traditional blood test. Through the genetic test, patients will have valuable data or pieces of information about their medical conditions, drug sensitivity, and even the whole family’s medical history. It’s an excellent gateway to know potential diseases that will be prevented and treated early. For example, it will provide comprehensive data to a specific patient, whether he or she will have higher intakes of Vitamin E, Iron, and Vitamin D. Also, it will even detect if a patient is alcohol, glucose, or lactose intolerant.
Medical Tricorder
Every healthcare professional’s dream is to have instant solutions and devices that can be in the form of one single device. The concept is like having a Swiss Army knife in the medical profession. With the emergence of healthcare technology, it will be possible to have one comprehensive medical gadget for measuring a patient’s blood pressure, body temperature, oxygen saturation, heart rate, and ECG.
Nanotechnology
With nanotechnology, it will be possible to develop smart non-invasive pills, microbots, cancer treatment tools, and efficient drug delivery systems. Also, another noteworthy integration of healthcare technology is the production of smart patches. With smart patches, patients can apply them into the wound and monitor them as well as stimulate healing.
Robotics
Robotics is one of the most rapidly emergent integrations of healthcare technology. Since the integration of healthcare technology, numerous robots are still under development. It ranges from exoskeletons, disinfectant robots, surgical robots, and robot companions. With robot companions, they help patients in coping with loneliness, assist children with chronic diseases, and treat mental health issues. It’s one of the most exciting integrations of healthcare technology.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality has been steadily changing the future of healthcare technology both for physicians and patients. Current and future surgeons use virtual reality to practice surgical procedures. With VR, it’s possible to provide effective pain management in pregnant women. For example, pregnant women are equipped with VR gadgets to envision soothing landscapes to ease them from their labor pains. Also, VR is an excellent tool for distracting pain for patients suffering from post-surgical, cardiac, and gastrointestinal pains.
Final Word
The healthcare industry is by far one of the most crucial technical domains we should be looking into. It’s best to always keep updated with the latest technology. After all, healthcare is the most invested and most important technology you can’t refrain from.
