Healthcare Technology Improves The Future

Featured Article by Robert Cordray, Independant Technology Author

The one-size-fits-all treatment conducted by traditional medical methods have prevailed for many decades. It is difficult to envision how the future of the healthcare industry will evolve. Will there be hologram doctors and nurses that make house calls? What about the possibility of full body imagery done within minutes during an annual physical in the office? The rapid advancements in technology, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and the growing number of people seeking care will increase the urgent demand for change in technology for the healthcare system.

Better Communication with Future Technology

Due to the demands of the complex healthcare payment structure, hospitals and physicians are accustomed to a system that requires patients to frequent their location for consultations and follow-ups. Patients convey a brisk summary of their ailments while physicians come up with a diagnosis to better help them. People have difficulties explaining all their issues in a short amount of time. Without thorough information, doctors cannot make an appropriate plan. With the information that is available, referrals to other health departments or facilities often occur. Interference in communication between the different divisions can delay proper treatments and procedures. It can also obstruct processing claims and receiving timely payments from third party payers.

Companies, like Proteus Digital Health, specializing in digital medicine have taken steps to improve the way patients can relay their daily activities and health information to their physicians. There will be little wiggle room for confusion when patients and their healthcare provider can see what their body systems are doing. Each person has different side effects and reactions to medicine and treatments.

Healthcare professionals gain insightful data of the patient’s vital signs during their regular daily routine. This data shows how their treatments are working, how their medications are working, and if there are developing issues to address. This will allow physicians to make a more informed decision on how to tweak treatments.

Medical patches are not new to the healthcare industry. Patches are used for smoking cessation, weight loss, distributing vitamins, and birth control. Patients can now wear a patch to keep track of their vital signs daily. The data is then sent to a smartphone app where the information collects so that the patient can share it with their healthcare team.

Ingestible pills are a newer innovation that allows recording of the patient’s vital signs and body system processes once it’s swallowed. It also is a great way to keep track of how the patient’s body responds to the medicine.

Healthcare technology has come up with several transformations in order to improve communication in the industry. Hospitals utilize advancements in the health information systems to provide the best possible service to the community. A few examples include EHR, PACS, and RIS.

Electronic Health Record (EHR)

Personal medical information is now digitized to make an electronic adaptation of the patient medical records. Healthcare professionals use EHR to communicate with other departments regarding their patient.

Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS)

Healthcare professionals use PACS systems to access and store medical images. It also allows the images and reports to transmit across the network so that the patient’s whole team of care providers have access to them.

Radiology Information System (RIS)

Radiology departments use RIS to create, store, and distribute radiological data and imagery for patients. Radiology Information System along with EHR and PACS assist in breaking down communication barriers between healthcare providers and departments.

It may be hard to imagine how the fate of the healthcare industry will turn out in the far future. Yet, we are close to many great advancements that will help healthcare professionals provide better services to the patients and community.