We’re living in exciting times, where technology is changing the way we work, communicate, bank, travel, and so forth. But it’s not only impacting our lives at home and in our workplaces. Technology is also improving patient care – doctors can communicate better with patients, just anyone can easily access information about their health condition. Let’s look at ways in which technology improves patient care.
Video Appointments
Video appointments are a great way to connect with patients in rural areas. If you’re unable to visit your doctor, maybe because of work or family obligations, video technology can help bridge the gap between you and your doctor. Apps like Skype or FaceTime have made it easier to call hospitals and attend scheduled appointments regardless of your location; patients no longer have to be on the bench waiting for their turn.
Video technology also helps connect people who may be homebound—or even hospitalized—to their doctors’ offices remotely via video calls, allowing them access to healthcare when they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to physically be there.
Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
Facility EHRs systems, especially Skilled Nursing Facilities, have drastically improved patient care by providing easy access to critical information about each patient’s situation, allowing hospitalists and physiatrists to make informed decisions quicker than ever bsefore. For example, completing integrated point click care charting was not an option even a year ago, but now you can chart, write medical progress notes, and coordinate care across coverage while on the move. It’s easier than ever to access information on a patient’s health, including medical history, medications prescribed or dispensed, and test results at the point of care while rounding without requesting paper documents or checking physical charts.
Telemetry
You might be familiar with medical devices that track health status or the term “telemetry,” which is used to describe the collection of data from a patient’s body. Telemetry devices can include anything from pacemakers and blood pressure monitors to heart-rate monitors and wearable fitness trackers.
These devices help you stay healthy by monitoring your vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and more. They then send these readings wirelessly through radio waves to a central server where they’re analyzed by hospitalists.
The information gathered by these medical devices allows acute health specialists to monitor patients at home, which can prevent hospital admissions, emergency room visits, ambulance trips, and other costly medical procedures that could have been avoided if doctors had had access to real-time data on their patients’ conditions.
Medical Analytics
Patient management software not only helps in patient management but also identifies trends and patterns in healthcare data, which hospitalists can use to improve patient experiences. Such valuable information can also provide a strong foundation for medical research.
Sensors and Scanners
Sensors and scanners are the technologies that help doctors diagnose diseases. Some of the most common sensors are lasers, MRIs, ultrasounds, and CT scans. Sensor technology works by using light or sound waves to measure something about your body. This can be as simple as measuring how much blood is flowing through your veins with an EKG machine—or more complex diagnosis, like detecting cancer cells in tissue samples by heating them with a laser before scanning them into computer memory for analysis.
These new tools have made diagnosis easier than ever because they allow physicians to diagnose illnesses that were hard to diagnose a few years ago.
Robotic Surgery
Robotic surgery is a minimally invasive surgery. The surgeon uses a robotic device that is controlled by a computer, allowing him or her to perform more precise and less damaging surgeries. Robotic surgery is used for many types of surgeries, including:
- Breast cancer surgery
- Colon cancer removal
- Endoscopy (an examination of the digestive tract)
Personalized Patient Care
When you provide a personalized experience for your patients, it’s much easier for them to understand their healthcare needs and get the best possible treatment. Technology has made it easy for patients to self-monitor their health, and even easier for hospitalists to conduct remote non-invasive medical assessments on their patients.
Improved Efficiency
Technology can help improve efficiency in the following ways:
- Patients can communicate with their doctor or nurse, who can then provide a better, more personalized care plan. This means that patients will get the treatment they need quickly.
- With technology at hand, it’s easier for doctors and nurses to track their progress on patient treatments—and make changes as necessary.
Reduced Medical Error
The ability to make more accurate diagnoses is a significant benefit of technology. A medical error can be defined as “a deviation from the standard of care that results in harm or death.” Recent studies found clinical errors to be the third leading cause of death in the United States.
But with the advent of technology, doctors have access to more information about their patients than ever before, which allows them to make better treatment decisions and prevent common errors like a misdiagnosis.
Increased Access to Healthcare
Access to healthcare is an issue that seriously affects millions of people, and it’s something we should all be concerned about. It’s important to remember that access to healthcare is a human right, and technology can help us improve it by making the process more convenient for patients.
On that note, there are apps available for both iOS and Android phones which allow users who suffer from mobility problems such as arthritis to access their calendars anytime, from anywhere. We’ve also seen hospitals delivering vaccines and medicines to patients in remote parts.
Conclusion
Technology is transforming the health system. It has made life easier for patients and doctors alike. By being able to enjoy the above technologies and others that haven’t been mentioned, people stay healthier longer and reduce costs associated with healthcare. Doctors now find it easier to perform their duties, thanks to the use of technology in diagnosis, treatment, and research. The possibilities are endless as new technologies continue to emerge each day, but there’s still more work to be done to improve patient care, especially as we move toward digital medicine and artificial intelligence.
