Healthcare has progressed so far and so rapidly that even just a few decades ago, today’s modern tools and practices would seem like something from science fiction. The days where a simple checkup was performed by a doctor equipped with nothing but a black bag containing a variety of simple medical tools are long gone. And while it would be nice if doctors still made house calls, the advances that have been made are well worth the exchange.
The advancements don’t show signs of slowing down anytime soon, either. Every day, new advancements enter the marketplace as people’s perceptions about how to care for their bodies evolve. A smoker seeking an alternative to traditional tobacco can switch to “e-cigarettes” with a vape starter kit. Starting this Spring, diabetics can invest in closed-loop insulin delivery systems that will continuously monitor their blood sugar and automatically administer the correct dosage of insulin with minimal input from the user. Prosthetic limbs are becoming much more affordable as 3D printing technology continues to advance.
In short, modern medicine continues to sprint forward.
Let’s take a look at just a few of the ways new technological innovations are impacting healthcare.
Longer lasting batteries for medical devices
All of the new medical gadgets that are being released require some sort of power source, and if a patient is expected to wear a device constantly, it will need to last a long time. For devices like pacemakers, which are surgically implanted, it’s particularly important that the batteries don’t need to be changed often.
Tech companies are working on a wide range of new technologies for portable energy sources, from aluminum-ion batteries under development by Stanford University to microsupercapacitors that charge 50 times faster than regular batteries that Rice University researchers are developing. The National University of Singapore is even working on harvesting the current generated by friction between people’s skin and clothes, eliminating the need for batteries entirely.
Telemedicine
Speaking of medical devices, scientists are working on solutions that allow patients to interact with their doctors from home. Wearable monitors can record and transmit measurements directly to the cloud, giving doctors real-time access to their patients’ information. Some medical practices are even expecting to gradually phase out the regular visit to the doctor’s office and conduct some follow-up visits entirely over mobile devices. While this seems like it would lead to fewer doctor-patient interactions, the goal is to increase the number of interactions by making them more convenient for both the doctor and patient.
Informatics and data analysis tools
Medical workers gather an enormous amount of data on each of their patients, and solutions are appearing that will allow them to aggregate a lot of that information and use it to develop new insights into treatment for various diseases. These solutions are also used to help hospitals and medical practices to store records more efficiently, with electronic records saving large hospitals an average of between $37 and $59 million. Doctors can use powerful tools for analytics to recognize patterns in patient behavior, genetic markers, and treatment success rates to improve treatment.
Artificial intelligence for predictive care and diagnostics
Tech giants like IBM, Google, and Amazon are doing serious research into advancing artificial intelligence for several purposes. In the medical field, it can be used to vastly increase the amount of information that can be processed in a short amount of time. As the technology advances, researchers are aiming to develop software that can form diagnoses automatically based on medical images. Other medical uses include predicting how cancer patients may react to chemotherapy and predicting how a disease will progress in a patient and how likely they are to develop complications.
Technology is rapidly marching forward, and medical workers are learning how best to capitalize on it. Clinics are learning how to provide better healthcare more efficiently, leading to better results for everyone involved. If technology continues to advance like this, it’s likely that healthcare a few decades from now will seem as advanced to today’s workers and patients as our current capabilities would seem to those from decades ago. Only time will tell.
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