Technological Advances

Technological Advances

Technological Advances

In the 20th Century, the healthcare system existed in a way that physicians acted as agents in order to deal with their patients, complex care was given to patients in independent hospitals without profits and the insurers never made decisions on medical care, physicians and hospitals for the patients and any other providers the patients needed for the medical services. Managed care has been in use since the 1890s where physicians used to give prepaid services for the medical care. Managed care made health care very effective by using preventive measures, reduced costs and excessive use of medical services. It controlled and regulated capital used to pay for medical services. (Dranove, 2009)

Technology has paved way for development in the medical field. The technology has advanced in that better tests can be done on patients. This has led to new treatments, procedures, preventions and drugs being introduced in the medical field. Illnesses which could not be treated have now found either treatments, prevention measures or long term therapy maintenance. Technology has also introduced several ways that have made doctors more available and accessible to their patients thus minimizing costs incurred in unnecessary checkups or drugs.

Technological advances have been made in that some systems have been introduced to make the health care system better. The electronic health record is one of the system that has been introduced. It is placed to hold the health data of the patients, from the pharmacy level to the doctor’s documentation on the patient. It has been used for the efficiency and care of the patients. This system thus improves health care by being consistent in delivering medicine and in treating patients. Since the physicians will have an upper hand on the patient’s health record, in cases of emergency it can be convenient in delivering health care.

The electronic health care record has made the public experience the changing health care system. This is because, the system has the patient’s data, thus in cases of treatment or seeing a physician, it saves time for both the patient and the physician because more further tests which are usually not necessary at that time will not be looked into again. Also in cases where the patient has allergies of some drugs, it guides them on what to give and not to give him or her.

Another technological advancement introduced in health care is the mHealth. Mobile health has enabled physicians and patients access their healthcare procedures easily. It has become a tool that has enabled patients to become more aggressive on their health and treatment by involving communications and biometrics. It has allowed patients to be in touch with their physicians by using their smartphones or tablets to send their health information.

It has become more popular because it saves the patients time and money used in travelling to see their physicians. It has become convenient since the patient can send the information effortlessly or have a video conference with their physicians. This will help them acquire information ranging from their patient’s drug information to their history and records. This will help the patient know their medical statuses and find preventive measures that are within their reach.

The electronic health care record might not be as relevant sometimes because some unintended errors might be incurred. (kawamoto et al., 2005). Some patients may have had some changes in their health depending on their diet or body exercise or over the counter drugs thus making the electronic system irrelevant. This thus will As much as mobile health has been popular, some adverse conditions which may require the physician’s attention can be overlooked, or some symptoms may not be detected early and bring more harm to the patient.

In the future, the electronic healthcare records will have reached an optimum capacity due to the growth in population in the United States, thus some advancements and changes will have to take place. Since technology is also not constant there could be a better system that could be introduced and might cause a shift from this electronic healthcare record system to another better system.

Mobile health might still maintain its popularity in future because as much as technology is still evolving, people will always own mobile phones, just maybe change in terms of make and operating system. Patient’s might however change their schedules and not have time to go visit physicians regularly because of their usual communication through text messages, emails or video conferences.

The utilization of healthcare can be affected in several ways. One of the factors is medical care. This is where a patient gets sick and requires the physician’s attention. Self-care is also another factor and a patient usually goes to see a physician for routine checkups for their own wellbeing. Other patient’s tend to weigh out options and decide for themselves, if the illness is not that chronic, they resorted to buying drugs for themselves. Some doctors may not be accessible thus patients with adverse. Increase in age is also another factor, the elderly get few consultations despite their severe illnesses.

Reference

Dranove, D. (2009). The economic evolution of American health care: from Marcus Welby to

managed care. Princeton University Press.

Kawamoto, K., Houlihan, C. A., Balas, E. A., & Lobach, D. F. (2005). Improving clinical

practice using clinical decision support systems: a systematic review of trials to

identify features critical to success. Bmj, 330(7494), 765.