Technology has contributed to the world of medicine in several ways than one. In diagnosis, treatment, and research, technology has been evolving profusely with the industry itself.

We once lived in a time where we had to consider the option of a general physician's consultation to check our blood pressure and sugar levels. Getting an appointment to visit the doctor would be on a first-come-first-serve basis or through a telephone booking. Also, getting the results of a lab test would take longer. All of those inconveniences are in the past. The healthcare industry has modern technology to thank for all the advancements it has made in providing excellent customer experience while better optimizing the work process of practically any task in hand. Technological innovations in healthcare have expanded the reach of medical practitioners and the hospital administration beyond the four walls of the hospital and the clinic.

Today, the practices adopted by the healthcare industry or any other industry for that matter empowers their consumers. Liberty and control are given to patients to make their preferred choices in every step of their medical treatment with the help of technology. Broadly categorizing, the healthcare industry has shown prominent progress in care methods, payment options, information collection and retrieval, disease management, and infrastructure. Healthcare, in most countries, contributes to a significant part of their GDP. Hence, investments are undoubtedly generous in creating, improving and improvising the technology and the workflows. Here is how technology innovations have benefitted the industry:

• Patients get easily accessible treatment: Thanks to Telehealth, the industry opens up the possibilities of providing medical treatment to people remotely. To learn more about Telehealth, read our blog that speaks all about it. Here’s the link:
• Better care and efficient procedures: Information technology in healthcare has ensured patient care through detailed and accurate health records, prompt lab results and precise analysis of critical patient data. The data collection also benefits the research studies for improved healthcare options and treatments.
• Transparency and Information dissemination: With the rise of patient health records, the patients have felt more involved in the healthcare business and the transparency helps build a better bond with the hospital or doctors. In addition, software that provides information about diseases, causes, symptoms, precautions, prescriptions etc. are used by doctors to analyze cases more precisely.

Technology is a total winner in patient care, so much so that bigger monitoring and recording systems are being replaced by smartphones and tablets. Such is the extent of the technological revolution in healthcare. We ought to get educated of these modern innovations in the world of medicine. Hence, we have put together some of the technological breakthroughs that recently defined technological advancement in the healthcare industry:

1. Electronic health records: The ability to retain information about a patient’s overall health is an absolute boon to both the patient and the healthcare provider. It provides insights on patient’s previous medical treatment, vital signs, prescriptions, billing etc.

Wearable technology: Use of smart sensors to detect any problems faced by the patient such as a change in vital signs can be notified to the care provider in the form of an alert.