Entry #3: Media Quest –Technology
in Medicine
From a moment a patient enters a medical facility, his/her information has been put in a computer data base. With the help of computer software paper charts were replaced with electronic medical records. This gave the patients and the healthcare team the possibility to access patients’ information much faster than before. Thanks to the Internet, now we can check the results of a big array of laboratory and different imaging tests on line.
Wireless network allows faster communication between a patient and a doctor. Doctors can collaborate better over the Internet. They can seek advice and share knowledge in a convenient manner. The healthcare delivery was moved from high cost to low cost settings. We already implemented devices that allow doctors to look at a patient's symptoms with their eyes. These devices are installed in people's homes that keep track of all their medical needs, so called “Telemedicine”. Lab-on-a-chip technology and portable ultrasound technology improve healthcare accessibility and delivery through shortening the timeline between testing and availability of the results. Therefore, in the future, these new technologies have the potential to save the medical field a lot of money.
Scientists are working on a way to use computers to prescribe medication. According to doctors, some medications can be harmful if prescribed to a patient who has a certain gene that is not able to properly absorb that medication. A new science called Pharmacogenomics is compiling all gene types with corresponding medications. Doctors will soon be able to swipe a DNA sample from the patient’s blood onto a computer chip that contains gene information. The DNA would stick to the genes that it matched to inform the doctor which medications would be absorbed by the patient’s genes.
The stethoscope was invented a century ago. It was a century ago when the x-ray was discovered, and the first vaccines were produced. Today sophisticated computers and infrared cameras are used for obtaining high-resolution images. We use PET (Positron Emission Tomography) and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to diagnose diseases and to see the extent of the disease process in the body; for example: to diagnose cancer and to see if the cancer is spread in the body and to which organs. These achievements in the medical diagnostics give an opportunity to catch the disease in early stages, to start the treatment early and to bring better outcomes for the patients. Therapeutic vaccines and nanomedicine are the future of cancer treatment.
Today we can do less invasive and bloodless surgeries. In this way we reduced the complications after surgeries, the hospital stay of patients, and the medical costs. Computer-assisted Surgery (CAS) is a fast-advancing field in medicine, which combines medical expertise with computer intelligence to give faster and more accurate results in surgical procedures.
These huge achievements were due to the use of technology in the medical field. We also have to pay attention to some challenges that came with the widespread use of antibiotics in the past: How we are going to treat the multidrug resistant bacteria? I would like to add some more questions: Do we spend enough time with patients to be able to address all their needs? Do we have a way to prevent high jacking of information from our patients’ data?
It is our responsibility to use technology wisely, to make sure that the benefits outweigh the issues.
I like the fact that technology has been upgraded and help save lives more efficiently and faster. The DNA sample on a computer chip to identify what type of medications patients can take in are interesting.
ReplyDelete-Grace Choi