How has technology made health diagnostics more accessible in the last years?
How is Healthcare Becoming More Accessible with the Latest Technological Advancements?
In the past two decades, technology has fundamentally changed the way people communicate and consume media. It has also impacted us in a more intimate way by changing our outlook on health and well-being. You will surely not deny that technology has made healthcare more accessible by making it cheaper, simpler to reach, and easier to understand. Living in a time when people continue to face problems with having access to healthcare, services such as Cignpost Diagnostics strive to explore the various ways in which people can receive better healthcare with the help of technology.
Some of the Latest Technological Advancements in Healthcare Systems
Millions of people lack consistent access to healthcare across the world for various reasons. While we enjoy free care on the NHS, outside the UK many people rely on insurance – and many people under the age of 65 have no health insurance. In fact, having health insurance or not isn’t the only issue that determines whether you have access to quality medical care. Other factors, such as the region you belong to, the language you speak, and the amount of money you can afford, can limit your access to proper healthcare.
It is where technology made one of the biggest breakthroughs. Advancements in technology have improved communication, enhanced efficiency, and brought more access to patients in the form of smart diagnostic systems, drug containers with motion detectors, and many more. The implementation of electronic medical records (EMRs) in the past few years has revolutionised the way of handling patient records in healthcare systems. EMRs have made healthcare more efficient, less expensive, and more streamlined.
If you are still wondering how, then have a look at the latest healthcare facilities below that clearly show how technology has revolutionised healthcare.
Mobile Clinics in Smartphones
In today’s world, having a smartphone is like having a sophisticated handheld computer in your pocket. Taking advantage of this, IT companies are increasingly developing apps and mobile gadgets that can convert your phone into a portable medical device.
Apps like Tissue Analytics, which aids in wound monitoring by allowing you to photograph and send pictures of your wounds to the doctor for assessment, AliveCor, which turns your phone into a mobile ECG machine and can measure your heart’s electrical activity, or NetraLabs, which allows you to perform eye testing at home, are some of the widely recognized apps which are making healthcare more affordable and cheaper. Such apps were a great help during the time of the Covid-19 outbreak when hospitals had a significant rush for treatment and check-ups.
Telemedicine Facilities
A decade ago, could you have imagined consulting your doctor over the phone via call, let alone video? Surely not. But you will be surprised to hear that millions of patients have used telemedicine services in the last year.
People living in remote locations or from rural backgrounds can now talk virtually with their physicians, which spares them the cost of travel and other expenses. In fact, during the Covid pandemic, when people had to stay isolated or were unable to step out of their homes unless it was an emergency, they used telemedicine services to consult with doctors and report their daily well-being.
Chatbot Doctors
Do we always need a doctor to advise us about our health practices? Not really, when you have medical advice-powered artificial intelligence facilities right around the corner. Patients now only have to enter the information regarding their health activities and test reports. The AI-based systems will analyse them and reply to the patients about the probable course of action they should take or any further tests they should conduct.
These medical chatbot systems are built using AI. They will ‘learn’ over time by gathering data from various customers and patients and using it to form their knowledge base and refine their diagnoses. Such systems have enabled patients to seek medical advice with a few touches of their fingertips.
Language Translating Apps
Often, people who do not have very good proficiency in English face difficulty in understanding the various medical terms. Language barriers seriously affect people’s access to medical care, health services, and communication with doctors.
There are several apps in the market that are designed specifically to solve this language barrier. These apps translate the medical terms from one language to another and provide additional information that helps the patients understand them in their native tongue.
Conclusion
The increasing applications of technology in the field of healthcare are not only making health services and other medical facilities – from basic check-ups to in-depth consultations with specialist doctors – easily accessible but also more affordable and flexible for everyone.
