Gone are the days when hospitals used traditional methods to treat and care for patients; with the introduction of new technologies, the healthcare sector worldwide has become more efficient, and patient care is at an all-time high.
The century’s worst pandemic Covid-19 further pushed the advancement of new technologies to be used in the sector to save lives. Some technologies that are now being actively used in the healthcare sector are telehealth, 3D printing, laboratory information system, etc.
If you are interested in how much the healthcare sector has changed in the past few years, read the article and get a gist of the important happenings in the healthcare sector. So, without further delay, let us get straight to the topic.
1. Automation In Lab Results
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Patients need to get numerous tests for diagnostic and preventative purposes.
These lab results inform the doctor on how well the patient is faring, from ensuring their organs are healthy to screening their blood.
However, at a one-time, thousands of reports and tests are getting carried out. These specimens and tests must be organized according to the patient’s ID, or it can lead to a severe medical error or misdiagnosis.
Hence, hospitals are now using a laboratory information system (LIS), a computer software that processes, stores, and manages all the data that comes from different stages of medical tests.
An excellent laboratory information system allows lab technicians to immediately coordinate patients’ lab reports and store them in their files.
So, if a physician needs to consult this information, they can check the hospital database and provide proper consultation.
The benefit of using LIS is that it reduces the manual work of sorting reports, allows lab technicians to pool a patient’s lab reports with minimal hassle, and makes it easier for physicians to retrieve the data they need, which leads to faster billing.
2. Resolve The Staffing Issue Within Hospitals
Hospitals are severely understaffed. There are far too many patients and not enough healthcare professionals to cater to all of them. This was best exemplified during the pandemic when there were not enough nurses to keep up with the number of patients admitted to the hospital.
As the population rises, this shortage will continue to pose a problem for the healthcare sector. Consequently, the quality of care and managing patient cases will decline rapidly, and if another pandemic or epidemic occurs, patients will struggle to find doctors to get treated.
This is why it is crucial to solve the staff shortage immediately. Websites like Nurse.com and Nurse jungle allow hospitals and nurses to connect. These platforms enable job posting, give nurses the space to share their applications, and narrow the search for the perfect practitioner by assembling their data in one place.
3. Monitoring Patients Remotely
Hospitals can now use remote monitoring techniques to keep tabs on their patients. This prevents patients from going to hospitals and getting a checkup, and they can manage their health from the comfort of their homes.
Remote monitoring also prevents hospitals from getting crowded with an influx of patients freeing up space and room for critical patients. Additionally, it makes managing diseases like asthma and chronic conditions easier since frequent monitoring provides doctors with the data they need to evaluate the patient.
Wearable devices like smartwatches continuously monitor the patient and feed real-time information to the patient’s phone, which can be connected to the hospital database.
So, if they suffer a heart attack or a severe fall, or the device detects irregular breathing, it can alarm the paramedics, and timely help can reach the patient. Apple watch’s ECG tracker is FDA-approved, which means patients can safely use it to monitor their health and use the data to get an accurate diagnosis.
Other devices like digital blood pressure cuffs can help patients who have trouble keeping their blood pressure in check maintain their health. These cuffs easily strap around the patient’s wrist and digitally detect their pressure and current heart rate.
4. More 3D Printing
3D printing is a crucial part of the healthcare sector. This technology has shown promising results in surgery, bone impacts, and precision instruments.
In 2019, 113 hospitals used 3D facilities to care for their patients. The FDA has also approved numerous medical products obtained through 3D printing.
Likewise, there was a noticeable surge in 3D printing healthcare products, especially during the pandemic, as it allowed hospitals to print out protective gear and medical equipment on short notice. 3D printing has many notable applications, which include implants, prosthetics, anatomical models, and medical equipment.
According to 2021, the journal of the American Academy of Orthopedic surgeons published a report that stated that 3D printing had made a marked difference in restoring impacted bones and cartilage. This was particularly useful for patients who have severe musculoskeletal injuries.
Similarly, prosthetics are much easier to manufacture and produce through 3D printing. These artificial limbs are much more affordable and more accessible to use than other prosthetic limbs. Thousands of prosthetics can get produced in a small amount of time.
Coming to anatomical models, 3D printing can create accurate and complex models to explain and study complicated procedures. In 2022 researchers at the Florida Atlantic University and the University of Virginia designed a robotic model of the human spine, which helped surgeons check on major spinal injuries and list all the relevant interventions to help these injuries.
Lastly, 3D printing can help create customized medical devices, including forceps and clamps, that reduce the need to place international orders to get all these things.
Final Thoughts
Numerous factors impact the healthcare sector, and one of them is technology. Digitization has made it easier for hospitals to do their jobs and manage multiple cases in one go. This includes introducing software allowing labs to organize and distribute patient data according to their lab tests.
Websites like RN wanted will enable hospitals to shortlist professional practitioners and hire them immediately. Technology has also introduced advancements like wearable tracking devices and 3D printing, which help hospitals monitor their patients remotely and also perform surgeries using tools that are affordable to manufacture and use.