The role of technology in healthcare has expanded since the 20th century, and modern medicine depends heavily on automation to function effectively. The pandemic introduced many conduits for integrating technology in the healthcare sector, and digital well-being has now become a norm in advanced countries.
Statistics indicate, for instance, that the market for mental health mobile applications will reach an incredible $17.5 billion by 2030. Technology helps optimize medical procedures, improves workers’ performance, and leads to better patient outcomes. That’s why more institutes are incorporating tech in their medical procedures.
What makes technology an important part of the healthcare sector in 2023? It’s probably because medicinal mistakes have become common nowadays and claim the lives of many patients annually. These errors – occurring because of human negligence – can be reduced via automation and giving repetitive tasks to machines for better results.
When machines perform repetitive functions, they save human workers more time and energy. Eventually, technology optimizes medical procedures, making healthcare workers more productive. This article explains the benefits of technology thoroughly.
Now, let’s see the various ways technology helps optimize medical procedures:
1. Artificial intelligence
Healthcare professionals everywhere realize the significance and cruciality of artificial intelligence in medicine. AI helps optimize medical procedures and make healthcare more effective. However, understanding the complex nature of AI and appropriately implementing it requires exceptional expertise and advanced skills. For this purpose, healthcare professionals can consider pursuing an AI health certificate to understand AI thoroughly and leverage its full potential. After earning this certification, healthcare professionals can boost diagnosis, develop individualized treatments, and examine disease progression based on insights attained through AI predictions.
Here are other ways in which artificial intelligence benefits healthcare:
- Analyze large amounts of information to learn healthcare benchmarks for people of different demographics
- Use the power of machines to diagnose patients rapidly, permitting quicker patient evaluations
- Leverage automation to help patients get meds, pay bills, and make appointments properly
- Discover better meds by employing machine learning to learn how drugs affect patients
- Provide medical services tailored to the patient’s unique genetic profile
2. AR/VR
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are changing the healthcare industry rapidly. Healthcare practitioners have discovered numerous applications of these two popular technologies to optimize medical procedures and improve patient outcomes.
First, you have to understand how these two technologies are different from each other.
- Virtual reality: This technology replaces your reality with a virtual world and fully immerses you in the digital realm
- Augmented reality: It uses real-world settings and augments them by adding digital elements to them
Here are some applications of VR/AR in healthcare settings for the improvement of medical procedures:
- Medical training: Medical students dissect corpses as a part of their training, but VR settings can replace the need to work on an actual cadaver. It allows students to train more efficiently without feeling any discomfort.
- PTSD treatment: These devices can help patients with PTSD overcome their condition. They can be placed in virtually created environments where they learn to deal with their trauma.
- Patient education: Surgeons can utilize this technology to explain to patients how the surgery will be conducted and which parts of their bodies will undergo it.
- Robotic surgery: Doctors can perform high-precision operations via robotics.
3. 3D printing
In 2014, an American company 3D-printed human livers and kidneys – a remarkable breakthrough in the field of medicine. Today, advanced technology has allowed humanity to redefine the concept of bio-printing, and the implications are wondersome. 3D printing can help those children who outgrow their prosthetics, for instance. Similarly, this technology makes organs readily obtainable for transplant when there’s no donor available. That’s how 3D printing has become a beneficial technology that optimizes medical procedures.
As scientists print the organ using the host’s genetic material, there are fewer chances of the 3D limb being rejected by the body. Moreover, some experts believe that 3D printing will make animal testing needless in the future. That’s why many companies today are heavily investing in 3D printing and relevant tools.
What are some other ways 3D printing is helpful in medicine? Here are a few simple ways 3D printing is making medical procedures better:
- Producing better medical devices
- Making surgical instruments better
- Helping surgeons prepare for surgeries
- Making surgeries customized and personalized
- Making drug administration more streamlined for patients
While these are noteworthy applications of 3D printing in healthcare, more is yet to come.
4. Nanobot surgeons
Researchers have stated that millions of root canal procedures turn out to be unsuccessful because the bacteria remains lurking in the patient’s dentine tissues. Traditional clinical practices are unable to reach deep inside the tissues. However, magnetically-driven nanobots are capable of fishing out these bacteria.
Robotics has changed the trajectory of healthcare development in today’s time. With nanobots, surgery will become more effective than before, eliminating errors and reducing time constraints. For these reasons, the healthcare sector is investing heavily in these technologies.
You may consider the example of Neuralink by Elon Musk, a company that invests in a neural activity-controlling brain chip. The field of neurotechnology is redefining the future of surgery in the world. It allows for robot-assisted surgeries and helps surgeons where extremely precise cuts are to be made. For instance, microsurgeries can become way easier with surgical nanobots, thereby redefining the field of brain surgery. That’s how technology optimizes medical procedures, ultimately boosting patient outcomes.
5. Medical Image Sharing
Secure image sharing in the realm of healthcare has become imperative, especially with the increasing need for interdisciplinary collaboration and remote consultations. By employing advanced encryption and security measures, image-sharing platforms ensure that confidential patient data remains protected during transmission. This safeguards against unauthorized access, potential breaches, and any compromise of patient privacy. Furthermore, secure image sharing not only enhances patient care by enabling immediate access to crucial medical images but also streamlines the diagnostic and treatment processes, regardless of the geographic location of the involved professionals.
Conclusion
While technology is rapidly penetrating every field and sector today, healthcare remains the one sector benefiting most from technological marvels. Advanced technology allows healthcare facilities to boost medical processes, enhance worker productivity, reduce medical errors, and ensure optimal patient care. Doctors and nurses increasingly rely on “tech tools” to become more productive. AI enables healthcare organizations to improve prediction capability, reducing errors and chances. AR and VR technologies create a seamless environment for workers to hone their work and for patients to achieve comfort with their procedures. Likewise, robotics assist doctors with operative tasks, eliminating mishaps and medical negligence. Additionally, 3D printing is boosting surgical techniques through the inception of organ models and precision instruments. While the list of technological marvels in healthcare is exhaustive, the ones mentioned above suffice to depict the benefits of advanced technology in medicine.
