People typically associate medical technology with machines like MRI scanners or hip prostheses; however, medical technology also encompasses practices and processes.
Telemedicine allows doctors to consult colleagues remotely from remote areas, making this form of consultation especially valuable in treating ailments including gastroenteritis. It has also proven useful for helping treat various maladies including chronic backache.
Information Technology
Information technology has an immense effect on every area of our lives, including healthcare. It enables healthcare professionals to share data more easily, thus improving service efficiency while simultaneously cutting costs and improving patient outcomes.
Information technology offers hospitals an accurate and efficient means of storing data. It enables hospitals to electronically record patients’ medical histories and medication orders – helping prevent errors while cutting down time spent documenting medical procedures.
Medical technology has provided greater access to healthcare for many disadvantaged people worldwide. Portable diagnostic tools, like handheld fundus cameras, allow clinicians to treat patients remotely. Some even come equipped with built-in telehealth capabilities and send real-time data back to a central system.
Social Media
Internet and social media have become an indispensable component of modern life, offering people a convenient way to reconnect with old friends, stay abreast of global events, learn new skills and stay informed of global affairs and news.
Technology also brings with it drawbacks, including cyberbullying and hacking which can have detrimental impacts on individuals’ mental health and lead them to feel depressed.
Social media has many beneficial impacts on society despite its drawbacks, from helping individuals connect to resources to promoting businesses products and services to raising social awareness for charities like cancer research or charitable donations. Social media also encourages user engagement and fosters customer loyalty which all play key roles in shaping politics, business practices and world cultures.
Wearable Technology
Emerging devices that gather health data to assist people in staying healthy have taken off in recent years, from consumer wearables such as smartwatches or fitness trackers, to medical grade devices like an adhesive skin patch that affixes directly to skin.
These devices monitor your heart and movement, connecting with your smartphone app to provide reminders or advice. They can detect changes in heart rate and blood pressure as well as alert you of potential stroke or high cholesterol risks.
Integration of this data into healthcare systems remains key, yet still presents many obstacles and hurdles – most significantly being socioeconomic disparities that limit its use among higher income individuals, potentially harming health outcomes in lower-income communities.
Robotics
Robotics has quickly become one of the fastest growing areas within healthcare, providing numerous advantages to both patients and healthcare workers alike.
Medical robotics offer many advantages for both surgery and infection risk reduction, enabling nurses to focus more on providing care to patients.
Robots can help with dirty, dangerous, difficult or repetitive tasks that are difficult or dangerous. They are also useful in transporting supplies and restocking shelves – even helping prepare and clean surgical tools more quickly!
Robotics does not pose an existential threat to human jobs, contrary to what some dystopian-minded futurists suggest. Many industries are adopting it and working alongside humans alongside robots; there are even opportunities available for training as technicians to program and maintain these machines.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence can support healthcare practitioners’ daily work, helping them devote more time and attention to patients while raising staff morale and retention rates. AI also can assist healthcare practitioners with making better decisions faster to bring life-changing therapies onto the market faster.
Pattern recognition to identify risk factors associated with health conditions can improve diagnosis and care, while using machines’ analytical power to perform tasks much more quickly than humans is aiding research progress in areas like drug discovery and regenerative medicine.
However, in order for AI to truly transformative, it must be transparent and understood by all involved. To achieve this goal across Europe, there must be clear standards on data, regulation, access and interoperability along with accountability and liability expectations; creating centers of excellence also speeds innovation.