Technological innovation in health care continues to grow, each development playing a vital role in the different processes including lab tests, patient registration, self-care tools and data monitoring. Major devices like smartphones and tablets are beginning to substitute conventional recording and monitoring systems, and people are now being given a full consultation in the comfort of their homes. The technological advancements in healthcare have added the option of giving services outside of hospital walls into user-friendly devices. The following are six of the newest technological advancements that have surfaced in recent years.
Vocera Messaging Wireless Communication
Walkie-talkies and instant messaging aren’t new technologies, but in the health care world they have just recently been introduced, leading them as replacements for overhead pagers and beepers. Vocera Messaging offers users platforms to send secure messages such as alerts and lab tests to one another using their smartphones, third-party clinical systems or web-based consoles. The messaging system ensures an expedite communication process while still tracking and recording sent and received information securely.
Telehealth and Telemedicine
Numerous studies have shown consistent benefits of telehealth and telemedicine, with results rising in rural settings that have minimum health care access compared to metropolitan areas. A study published in CHEST Journal reports patients who were in an intensive care unit equipped with telehealth were discharged from the ICU faster than patients in a regular ICU. Telehealth and telemedicine offer patients a full assessment with a physician through video chat reducing traditional office fees. Clinics who have telehealth and telemedicine will reduce waiting time and lower office costs for employees, employers, and patients.
NeuroSky Sensors and Wearable Technology
NeuroSky offers low-cost EEG-linked research and products while using economical dry sensors. These sensors or wearable medical devices help collect data from the brain and the body. People have the ability to monitor, calculate, optimize their individual physical performance and keep track of brain activity to help maintain brain health with biosensor hardware.
Mobile Health
Mobile health is providing physicians and patients to check on health care processes on-the-go without the wires and cords. Doctors and patients can use smartphones and tablets to freely send and access health care information. Physicians and service providers can use mHealth tools for health documentation, orders, or to simply give more information to their patients easier.
Pharmacogenomics
Personalized medicine continues to push forward in the health care industry. Creating treatment plans according to an individual’s needs offers promising benefits for health care efficiency and diagnostic accuracy. Pharmacogenomics in particular helps reduce the billions of dollars in health care spending due to misdiagnoses, adverse drug events, readmission and other unnecessary costs.
Real-Time Locating Services
This growing data monitoring tool is helping hospitals focus on efficiency to instantly identify problem areas. Hospitals are now provided with tracking systems for their devices, instruments and even clinical staff. These tools and services ensure that equipment and supplies in the hospital stay intact, and if ever moved or stolen, can be found using real-time tracking.
Technology is giving the health care industry a serious upgrade, including health care mobile apps that help patients live healthier, medical translation tools, and even wearable health care devices. Many are still in its early experimental stages, but these advances in technology could soon help lower the cost of health care and improve patient treatments. As the health care technology continues to grow, the field of medicine and medical interaction is beginning to move onto a whole new era.
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