How Technology Is Changing the Patient Experience

Whether you’re a registered nurse, a hospital surgeon, or an independent patient advocate, you’re probably relying on technology daily. Advanced software, wearables, medical devices, and sophisticated vehicles have significantly improved patient outcomes and experience. 

The best thing about these machines is that they’re also making lives easier for medical professionals. For example, telehealth solutions make it easier to help patients remotely, while digital records simplify the previously cumbersome documentation process.

In this article, we’ll take a glimpse at all the upcoming technologies that will change medicine forever. Specifically, we’ll focus on the benefits patients can enjoy from concepts such as AI diagnostics, data privacy, and patient portals. 

Telemedicine 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been increased discussion about digitalized medical procedures. Instead of having to wait in lines, in tightly crowded hallways, patients were encouraged to perform their exams online. Although the method may feel awkward for many people, telehealth offers benefits for both patients and healthcare providers.

Besides reducing crowds, it makes scheduling much easier by avoiding otherwise common conflicts. The fact that you no longer have to travel to the nearby medical center is also a great advantage. Telemedicine is especially beneficial for people living in rural areas and specialists who are sought after across the globe.

The process includes the following functions:

• Video consultation is ideal for quick checkups, but also longer talks with specialists. 
• Digital triage tools are perfect for assessing patients’ states. They help doctors determine if a person can manage the issue at home, without visiting the hospital.
• Remote monitoring can be used for a plethora of issues, ranging from diabetes to hypertension. Most importantly, you receive all the data in real-time.

Telemedicine has made quality healthcare available to all patients regardless of their geographical location, age, or mental state. 

Wearables 

Wearable IoT devices have become popular in many professions and services, not only in medicine. Some of the most popular products from this category include smart rings, fitness trackers, and smartwatches. These devices are powered by various apps that can monitor everything from our heartbeat to blood sugar and oxygen saturation levels.

Here are some of the biggest reasons to use some of these devices:

• Continuous Monitoring: Perhaps the best thing about wearables is that they give doctors a more complete insight into patients’ health. Instead of assessing a person’s vitals every so often, medical experts will have access to data accrued over time, indicating daily and weekly fluctuations.
• Personalized Recommendations: One of the biggest issues with therapies is that doctors often use the same, generic approach for each person. Apps analyze data over time, helping medical professionals customize therapies, thus hastening recovery. 
• Enhanced Prevention: Wearables are every bit as important for prevention. Besides measuring your sugar and heart rate, they can assess your activity levels, sleep patterns, and calorie intake. As such, these devices are an excellent supplementary solution to traditional medical procedures.
• Real-Time Alerts: Modern health and wellness apps send alerts to users each time their parameters are out of balance. Each time your sugar drops or spikes, you’ll get an instant notification helping you address the issue before it escalates.

Wearables are fantastic for people with chronic issues. If you’re suffering from an issue that requires constant attention, they can point out any discrepancies, which ultimately saves lives.

Artificial Intelligence 

Artificial intelligence has practically ushered in a new era of predictive analytics. By tracking patients’ data over time, software can identify patterns, predict recovery rates, and detect potential errors. It represents a major shift in medical philosophy, as we’re becoming increasingly reliant on machines to correct our mistakes. 

Among other things, AI can help physicians with:

• Enhanced imaging analysis
• Risk assessment 
• Symptom monitoring
• Genomics supports
• Early detection

AI is slowly becoming vital for radiology. The technology excels at detecting tumors, lesions, and fractures during CT scans, MRIs, and X-rays. Artificial intelligence might notice something that a human eye does not, significantly reducing diagnostic errors. 

By relying on data from wearables, electronic records, and genetic profiles, AI-driven devices can assess patients’ risks of various diseases. Most notably, they do a great job of establishing the odds of suffering from diabetes, stroke, or heart attack. As such, the technology is vital for hospitals, as it optimizes their daily processes and improves resource allocation.

The great thing about AI is that it becomes smarter with the increase of data. In other words, although the initial technology doesn’t seem to be much, it should increase over time as we gather more data points.

Personalized Medicine

It is well known that each person reacts differently to diseases and therapies. As such, doctors were always looking for different approaches that would maximize recovery rates. The good news is that we can collect numerous patient data points that would improve our results. 

Basically, modern software can analyze each patient’s biological makeup. After performing different tests, advanced devices can break down a person’s genetic characteristics, protein quantity, microbiome, and the impact of lifestyle. Here are some of the potential benefits you can experience:

• Genomics: To maximize the benefits of personalized medicine, patients must undergo DNA testing. During the evaluation, these devices will identify mutations, as well as predict the chance of different diseases and drug responses. 
• Cancer Therapies: Cancer treatments have become much more accurate, protecting surrounding tissue during chemotherapy. With modern technology, we’re able to address specific mutations and improve early detection. 

• Risk Assessment: A good portion of personalized medicine revolves around prevention. By relying on genetic testing, we can discover predisposition for various heart issues, certain types of cancer, and Alzheimer’s. This significance improves patients’ outcomes and quality of life. 

• Pharmacogenomics: This field of research enables us to match drugs to our individual DNA. That way, we can increase the effectiveness of different therapies and optimize dosages according to our metabolism.

The Future of Medical Technology

By relying on technology, medical institutions can significantly improve outcomes. While many of these devices and methods are still in their inception, they have already shown enormous long-term potential.

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