When you picture the healthcare industry, you imagine white coats and sterile rooms, and when you picture the service they provide, you likely imagine trips to the doctor’s office or a hospital waiting room. The world of the healthcare industry is incredibly complex, and we only get to see so much of it because of our lack of involvement, but there’s so much more going on behind the scenes. It’s hard to imagine what goes on to help get us the care we need.
In 2020, we’re noticing a much bigger focus on transparency for healthcare services and how they are affecting us. With the ongoing pandemic, we see now that there’s much more than meets the eye to how healthcare provides people with the care they need and helps improve research. The healthcare industry has been a recipient of some of the most impressive advancements in technology and practices, and we’re starting to see it more and more every day. Here are some innovative ways that healthcare is adapting to new challenges.
Mobile health units
It might not jump off the screen to some as innovative or technologically impressive, but the ability to provide healthcare needs around the clock and in off-site locations is reducing the burden for hospital systems. Mobile health units at https://www.craftsmenind.com/mobile-medical-vehicles-new-used are likely something you’ve seen before, trailers or vans capable of providing care at a moment’s notice in various locations, which help healthcare workers adapt. From blood donations to disease testing, it allows nurses and doctors to perform their duties without overcrowding clinics or hospitals, allowing more work to get done and protect lives.Â
Cloud computing
People have been talking about cloud computing for years, but they don’t realize that it goes well beyond improving their storage needs for personal or work use. Cloud computing reduces the amount of storage space and costs that hospitals and system administration require to backlog incredible amounts of data. The need for servers is at an all-time high because the world is digitally focused. There are no longer huge filing cabinets filled with patient information. It’s stored in bits and bytes, which are now stored in the cloud. Cloud computing helps reduce these costs that can go elsewhere, like medical research and supplies, and free up more space to be utilized for pressing needs.Â
Remote visits
The abstract use of cloud computing is just one of the ways that digital technology solutions are helping unburden the hospital system. Remote visits, usually through video chat software, allow clinics and physicians to meet with their patients, but keep them safe at home, especially when there’s a concern for overflowing hospitals. Keeping people safe at home, but still getting them to receive the care they need, is another example of how the medical industry adapts to expand their abilities to provide service and keep up with the latest technologies.
Robotic assistance
The world of automation has been rapidly evolving. While some are fearful of the new world of robotic involvement in our work economy, others are much more optimistic about its implementation. Where it excels is in the fact that robotic assistance is helping surgeons perform difficult tasks that require a precise skill. Doctors can use robotic hands in the operating room and the hospital as supplementation of human workers. Similarly, even remote robotic arms can be used from thousands of miles away to complete a surgery. Scary to some, but fascinating, nonetheless.Â
3D technologies
3D technology used to be at its pinnacle when people or things in movies could reach out of the screen and shock viewers with its complexity, but now, the use of 3D technologies is even more far-fetched than we could have ever imagined. Using 3D printers to create artificial matter is something that not even the brightest minds of the 20th century would have imagined would surface in the healthcare industry. The ability to create things as complex as organs can help save lives and improve the ability of healthcare industries worldwide to enhance the livelihood of all. Organs, bones, and other biological matter being created out of seemingly thin air is an advancement that greatly challenges the perception of what technology can do, and how far it’s advancing the ability of doctors, nurses, and researchers to help improve or even save lives.Â
AR and VR
In a similar twist to the advancement of 3D technology, the intention of AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) was for entertainment purposes. Video games and software that could mesh the worlds of the real and the fake show how far we could take our entertainment, but it doesn’t stop there. AR and VR technology is allowing researchers to test their practical abilities in more advanced settings, beyond the use of things like medical dummies. Training surgeons in high-stress situations that simulate the kinds of challenges they might meet is important for creating a new class of highly-trained and technologically literate healthcare workers.
Wearables and trackables
It seems that everyone is talking about getting in their steps or tracking their fitness. This is good because a more conscious focus on personal health is good, but the healthcare industry is also utilizing these devices and technology to help get a better understanding of patients. Fitness trackers that monitor heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and other bodily functions help healthcare workers see how their patients are doing. It’s also important for high-risk patients that need more constant care, so there’s a better ability to keep them from harm’s way.
The healthcare industry is constantly evolving. But then, when people imagine innovation in this area, they picture new medicines and vaccines when it’s much more advanced than that. Cutting-edge technology like 3D printing and VR allows nurses, physicians, specialists, and surgeons to provide care in much more robust and diverse ways.
