How technology is improving efficiency in medicine
While healthcare standards vary across the globe, there is a continuous effort in many countries to improve the way patients are treated and handled. Not only are companies striving to provide hospitals with the latest necessary medical equipment but technology is also improving efficiency in medicine leaps and bounds – here’s how:
Technology to be incorporated into NHS plans
These days, most people own a tablet or smartphone, so it’s perhaps no surprise that these mobile gadgets are starting to infiltrate the NHS – one of the largest and respected public health services in the world. Healthcare professionals can already download a wide range of apps that can assist with everyday tasks, such as note-taking and time management, but there are currently big technology-based plans in place that will help improve patient care and make the public health system more efficient by 2020.
Visions are ambitions, but the personalised health and care strategy 2020, devised by the National Information Board aims to maximise the use of technology in health and care services and strives to give citizens more control over their health and wellbeing in the years to come.
Plans include allowing patients digital access to their own GP records (and record additional comments if necessary), making care records available electronically across the health system so that patients only have to tell their story once, introducing a digital ‘red book’ by 2016 so that expectant and new mothers can manage the health of their babies more efficiently and using technology to develop innovative, personalised medicines that work first time.
Revolutionary NHS-approved apps library
As part of the 2020 healthcare strategy, NHS England has also launched an apps library that makes it easier than ever for people to monitor their health themselves – rather than constantly relying on NHS professionals to do the job for them. Of course, apps are not a replacement for fully-qualified doctors and nurses, but if citizens can track their mood, sugar levels, psychological state, blood pressure and such like over a period of time it enables medical professionals to understand their needs faster.
Everything from Diabetik (which makes diabetes management faster, easier and more accurate) to The Sleep School (designed to overcome insomnia) are already available to download and with many companies and start-ups putting their energies into developing medical-related apps, this industry is only set to expand.
Technology is improving how medicine is administered
As the NHS undergoes a digital revolution, emerging technologies are also saving lives and making the work of medical staff easier – particularly when it comes to administering medicines. Needle-free diabetes care, for instance, is already in the pipelines and will allow patients to monitor their blood sugar levels via a patch rather than by drawing blood several times a day.
Similarly, a unique sensor system known as Ostomi-i-Alert warns patients when their ostomy bags are full and need changing helping to avoid leakages and spillages. Output measurements can also be sent via Bluetooth to other techy gadgets like smartphones making it much quicker and easier for healthcare professionals to monitor bodily fluids.
So as you can see, technology is improving the efficiency of medicine greatly with innovative inventions and relevant, techy-based strategies reforming the health industry significantly and will continue to do so, to create a brighter, healthier future.
Written by Patrick Vernon on behalf of Tente
Tags: apps, digital access to GP records, efficiency in medicine, healthcare standards, NHS, technology, the personalised health and care strategy 2020