Photo by Nestlé / Flickr
Technology has touched and changed every industry in the world and healthcare is no exception to that. We can see that the hospitals and healthcare facilities we have today are completely different from just 50 years back. Things have improved a great deal and the time is not too far when there will be robots that will be helping patients with all their needs. That time is not far away because the robots are already helping people in their homes with several different tasks. Robotic vacuum cleaners are quite a common thing and a hint of what future will be like.
It won’t be wrong to say that healthcare and medical industries are the ones that need technological improvements the most. No matter how advanced we become diseases, illnesses and injuries remain parts of our lives. In addition to curing these illnesses and taking care of the injuries, technology has come far enough to bring about some revolutionary changes as well. The use of nano-technology in medicine is a proof of humans taking control over their healthcare needs. Here is how technology is helping the healthcare industry overall.
The Great Technological Improvements In Healthcare Industry
The first and foremost are the lasers. Laser is being used in healthcare like no other technology. The reason why laser is so popular and commonly used is that it can perform many functions. There are literally hundreds and thousands of procedures that can be performed using laser. Laser stands for (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) and this amplified light can do wonders. One of the common uses of laser is in treating cancer. There are many different ways in which lasers help doctors treat tumors and cancers, and the procedures are only getting better with time.
Laser allows the doctors to target a very small area in the body through a beam that consistently hits only the targeted area. Coagulation of tumors is made possible with the use of laser. Hundreds and thousands of clinics have used cosmetics lasers to treat several of skin related issues. In fact, laser keeps the patients away from needles and surgical methods and this is a huge advantage for laser. The use of such focused light is made possible through the selection of the same wavelengths so the scattering of light does not take place as it does in the case of light coming from a bulb.
Laser has been saving people from eye cataracts that cause people to lose their vision or see blurred images. The recent studies have shown that laser can perform 12 times better than any other methods that are in use in treating cataracts. In fact, the laser can be so effective that it will leave the eye lens strong enough to accept contacts and other methods of improving the vision. In addition to the use of laser, healthcare technology has gotten better out of the hospitals as well. Look at the modern ambulances and you will realize the big improvements.
Today, staff in the ambulance can not only provide the patient with basic treatment but perform CT scans, TPA tests, etc. too. What this means is that they are able to save time for the patient which is of crucial importance in emergency situations. The patient can enter the hospital and receive treatment straight away as the ambulance staff hands over the reports and results to the doctors taken on the way. These are called the mobile stroke units and written in short as MSUs. Wireless technology is getting quite common with the passage of time too.
Today, people can use their smartwatches and smartphones to count the number of steps they have walked or run. They have applications that tell them their blood pressure, heart rate and other important information. This type of information can greatly help the healthcare industry as collection of such data can allow the doctors to know about the conditions of their patients before they even visit them. SpaceOAR is another thing that could revolutionize the healthcare industry in future since it can be used for treating the prostate cancer and many other fatal diseases taking millions of lives every year.
Nanobots is something you are going to start hearing about very soon. Nanobots might be the future of healthcare and medicine industry as a whole. They are being developed and made better with time. Currently, there is not much that can be done using them but that’s the case with every new technology and invention. They are not being used for any big purpose today but experts believe that they are going to cause a huge revolution in the healthcare industry as engineers and scientists come up with the right materials and methods to develop them for treatments of various bodily conditions.
Nanobots are supposed to be robots that will be nano-sized. What you see robots doing with their regular size will be possible with nanobots. These little creatures will be inserted into the body and sent to particular organs and locations where they will perform the functions they have been programmed for. They can attack the cancer cells in the body or make sure that drugs only reach the part of the body that is affected. This will result in reducing the side effects of the drugs a great deal. Cell repairing and blood clotting are other things these nanobots can do.
Head transplant is something you have watched only in movies but this is a reality today. Companies like Google have also stepped into this fight of making head transplants possible. The latest experiments reveal that head transplant is possible but it is the moral values that are becoming an obstacle in letting this technology go further. In addition to head transplants and methods of simulating a human brain using super computers, there is this new concept of hospital experience that will change the way you have been knowing and imagining the hospitals. If successfully implemented, hospital experience will literally change hospitals and healthcare facilities.