Discover how technology helps healthcare.
Technology is often considered as a useful tool at home or in the workplace, yet one place where technology is having a major impact in is healthcare. Here are some elements we’ve identified as how technology helps healthcare.
Whether you wear an Apple watch or a fitbit, that reminder on your writs tells you when to stand, how close you are to achieving that activity goal and keeps you moving during the day.
These exercise bands have introduced gamification to our daily lives, where we are keen to improve exercise levels. And it’s great being in a meeting of Apple watch wearers where everyone gets a nudge at 10 minutes to the hour and seeks a reason to get the meeting finished early or at least on time, to achieve that stand goal.
You may decide to share your activity with your doctor and in some cases, it may be automatic. One of the world’s leading pacemakers, from Medtronic, connects to the CareLink network which means that patients can share their pacing data with a cardiac surgeon, form the comfort of their own home. This is revolutionary and saves time in terms of travelling to the surgery, waiting to see the specialist, waiting for the medical team to set up all the connections to get the data. Instead, via these connected devices, all the information is delivered to the desktop. So when the phone call happens, all the data is ready and waiting.
In the past, we waited until a disease occurred and subsequently sought treatment. Today with DNA investigations and predictive analysis, potential issues can be identified before they occur. Gene mapping is taking place on a worldwide scale, admittedly much of it as part of ancestry projects where people want to know where they came from. With the data being shared, this starts to provide a large genome dataset.
Local doctors often relied on conferences and knowledge from colleagues to really understand and diagnose various symptoms. Today we’re living in a connected world which enables doctors to search academic articles worldwide, to ensure more accurate diagnoses and faster.
When you visit your GP in the past there were hand-written notes which could be lost ion transit if you ever decided to move house. Today’s records are electronic and can move with you. Plus if your regular doctor isn’t available, there’s another who can instantly access your records. The future should enable patient control of information, so the patient provides the doctor with a code to immediately access all data, even when on holiday or working away.
This post was inspired by this post about ways Technology Is Improving Your Health and do share how technology has helped your health.
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