Healthcare Technology Featured Article

September 25, 2019

Impact of Technological Innovations in Healthcare




The benefits of modern technology have now touched almost all aspects of our life. However, healthcare is one area that has probably gained the most from technological innovations we have experienced in the last few decades. Be it reducing nursing home abuse or the development of new treatment methodologies, technology continues to make our healthcare sector more efficient. Technological developments accomplished in recent years have saved millions of lives and improved the quality of human life.

Let us take a look at some of the most noteworthy improvements in healthcare caused by the latest technological innovations.

Digitalization of Health Records:

The replacement of paper-based records by Electronic Health Records (EHRs) has been a massive game-changer in the healthcare industry. This development has not only made it possible for the patients to access their medical records effortlessly but also ensured that critical errors are caught promptly.

Amongst many benefits brought to healthcare by electronic health records, here are few important ones.

  • Improved Patient Care: EHRs are capable of sending automatic alerts to physicians about potential issues. This is proven to be a critical benefit for the treatment of unresponsive patients.
  • Better Public Health: EHRs also help the process of advancing medical knowledge and developing treatment methodologies for health problems by proving important information to clinical researchers.
  • Simplified Workflow: Out of all types of allied health workers in the US, medical coders and billers probably have the most stressful job. The introduction of EHRs has undoubtedly made lives much easier for these key healthcare professionals.
  • Lower Healthcare Cost: A study conducted recently by the University of Michigan suggests that the expense incurred on outpatient care can be brought down significantly by shifting to electronic health records from paper.

Big Data and the Cloud:

Often considered to be the buzzword of the current digital age, big data in the healthcare industry is somewhat intertwined with electronic health records. In simple words, this term refers to a huge quantity of data that we can collect, process, and use for analytics.

Analysis of big data by experts provides a multitude of healthcare benefits including

  • Developing new drugs and treatments
  • Improving efficiency and quality of care
  • Reducing healthcare waste
  • Improving the quality of life
  • Avoiding preventable deaths
  • Reducing healthcare costs
  • Predicting epidemics

Information and Communication Technology:

Information and communication technology (ICT) has created an exciting opportunity to link healthcare professionals to their patients like never before. In order to share information, the healthcare industry now makes extensive use of smartphones, email, telemonitoring, and telemedicine systems. These technologies are particularly useful while delivering healthcare in rural areas suffering due to the lack of specialists and facilities.

Telehealth and telemedicine are extremely useful technology tools for the purpose of two-way video consultations or healthcare data transmission. Telemedicine has already proven its utility in many fields such as cardiovascular healthcare.

Telemonitoring technology allows healthcare professionals the freedom to monitor critical health symptoms, signs, and even blood levels while being located far away from the patient. As far as telehealth is concerned, allied healthcare jobs have benefited the most from it. These telemedicine options can significantly shorten the patient wait time, improve healthcare access in rural areas, and improve the overall efficiency of healthcare delivery systems. 

Mobile App Technology:

As all of you know, these days, there is an app for almost everything. In terms of the development of mobile applications, healthcare is one of the fastest-growing markets. The mobile apps are designed to offer greater flexibility to patients as well as all parties involved in the delivery of medical care. Some of the areas where mobile health facilities are extremely useful are chronic care management, diagnostics, medication management, medical reference, mental health, fitness and weight loss, etc. 

       



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