The development of technology is causing many improvements in our everyday lives: it changes the ways we communicate, shop, work. Of course, the health industry, considering its importance, cannot be an exception to this.
In the next few lines, you will find some of the most prominent examples of how technology improved the way we take care of our health.
Improved medicines and faster path to the diagnosis
The first thing that technology did for human health is to improve the ways our diagnoses are established and the treatments and medicines used to cure us. Thanks to the development of machines people are treated faster, medicines are more available and the survival rate is higher.
When talking about this, we must not forget the prevention of diseases that technology has made possible. One of the brightest examples of this being of course the vaccine, the innovation that has been in special focus lately, thanks to the Covid pandemic.
Online education of medical staff
Technology has brought us the ability to study online and healthcare staff is no exception to this rule. Many medical degrees are available completely online, giving the option to people to study at a selected institution or the degree they want no matter their location or time zone.
Online education means the availability of many courses for additional education. For medical staff, this means they can access these courses regardless of their shifts and schedules and they can get or renew their advanced medical certifications that are necessary to keep their jobs or assume a higher position.
Medical staff is easier to reach
Technology improved the means and the ways we communicate. In the world of medicine, this first brought us the pagers that helped reach the staff in emergencies, then smartphones that made them even more available. Ultimately, emails and similar ways of written communication have helped the patients communicate to doctors more often.
Telemedicine is also the result of this. Thanks to modern means of communications, more remote parts of the world that did not have access to healthcare can at least speak with their doctors through video conferencing tools now. This reduces their expenses of physically visiting the nearest clinic while being especially popular for psychiatrists to deliver counseling.
It is easier for the health workers to access the information they need
The access to the Internet that technology has given us means it is much easier for us to access millions and millions of pieces of information on the World Wide Web. The funny thing is that most of us use it to look at silly pictures of cats, but healthcare workers do use it to help their patients by researching the newest trends in treatments faster and communicating with their colleagues all around the world, to find out about their innovations.
Another blessing that technology brought us is how we store medical records and how health professionals can access them. Instead of paper files that had many flaws and were often lost or damaged. Now the history of every patient’s treatment is available in digital format that doctors and nurses can access easily and even when they are away from the health care institution.
The apps found their way to healthcare as well
How often do you hear:” Oh, there is an app for that.”? Well, there are many apps for healthcare. They can help you monitor your health status, set your doctor’s appointments, get your test results, remind you to take your meds, etc.
Many of the things we mentioned above also exist in the forms of apps. For example, there are apps through which medical professionals can access the information they need urgently.
Final thoughts
The overall impact of technology on healthcare is enormous. It is also part of everyday life in the richer part of the world. This means some of us take it as an everyday thing, as well as, of course, for granted.
Since our article dealt with improvements, we made sure to mention all the positive effects here, but that does not mean there are no negative ones, like the fact the Internet turns people into their own doctors which can be dangerous on so many levels.
