How med tech can help patients in 2017
Everyone cares about what medical technology exists.
Regardless of whether you understand it, tech designed to help people’s various conditions can only be a good thing.
Advances in the pharmaceutical industry might lead to massive profits for corporations, but this also means people get the medication they need.
Looking at 2016 and toward 2017, it’s important for us to consider just what will help medical care. Health has allowed for some of the most brilliant minds in the world to focus their energies into areas that help the world. With rapid advances in technology, it’s always hard to predict where the world will end up or what will be affected.
For example, who could’ve predicted years ago that advances in mobile phone technology would change the taxi industry around the world? But that’s precisely what’s happened with the smartphone app, Uber. This is why, when thinking about tech advances in any industry or sector, it is wise to think broader.
The Internet of Things and Smart Homes
Smartphones are everywhere these days. And more smartphones means more advances in smartphone technology. Tied to smartphone advances has been the rapid expansion, around the world, of internet access. More people these days use the internet to conduct business, education and maintain relationships than ever before. We’re increasingly seeing a gradual erosion of what constitutes the internet and everyday life, since so much of our lives are integrated into what we do online. Business people can have meetings with clients at any time, anywhere; students can research any topic and email their lecturers with questions; campaigns that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by traditional media get worldwide attention thanks to savvy social media use. Indeed, social media is now so much a part of life, the American President-Elect uses it as his primary form of communication with the world.
The expansion of the internet has led to what’s known as The Internet of Things (IoT). As Forbes summarises:
“Simply put, this is the concept of basically connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet (and/or to each other). This includes everything from cellphones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of. This also applies to components of machines, for example a jet engine of an airplane or the drill of an oil rig.”
More and more, the Internet of Things will go from conception to reality, as more homes use everyday devices that can connect to the internet. People can control their fridge, security, air-conditioner all from their phones. Importantly, they will also be using the IoT in terms of medical care. As TechRadar noted: “Over the next five years the traditional ‘doctor-patient’ model will completely open up as self-monitoring devices do away with the need for routine check-ups and appointments, and IoT sensors in our homes and on our bodies increasingly allow us to look after ourselves.”
One study pointed out that the biggest advantage the Internet of Things will have on health care is the amount of data produced: “Insights gained from big data analysis will drive the digital disruption of the healthcare world, business processes and real-time decision-making.” This will increasingly be realised as more homes and patients begin integrating such devices into their everyday lives in 2017.
Virtual reality
2016 saw a surprising number of virtual reality headsets enter the market. Major corporations like Sony and Samsung all focused their resources on creating user-friendly virtual-reality headsets for consumers. The Sony Playstation VR headset sold in large numbers in Japan and America, since these were marketed as “plug and play” technology (in other words, they worked by just putting plugs in with little complicated setup). Other virtual reality headsets required expensive computers and a complex setup.
Virtual reality will have an effect on medicine, too.
As the Guardian reports, 2016 was the year of the first virtual reality operation: “[it was] the world’s first operation to be streamed live in 360-degree video, allowing medical students, trainee surgeons and curious members of the public like me to immerse themselves in the procedure in real time.”
The benefits here are primarily for education. For supporters of this new kind of teaching tool, there are advantages such as showing in real-time what a surgery is like. It also shows how the rest of operating team works alongside a surgeon. Out the box thinking when it comes to medical healthcare solutions is what we’ll start to see more of in the coming years. For example, VR headsets are even being used to help patients relax and reduce pain. By totally immersing a patient in another environment, they can take themselves away from whatever might ail them.
Machine learning
As we noted, the IoT will allow for incredible data gathering. But this also ties into another advance: machine learning. As Stat News highlights: “Doctors will one day be able to more accurately predict how long patients with fatal diseases will live. Medical systems will learn how to save money by skipping expensive and unnecessary tests. Radiologists will be replaced by computer algorithms.”
This is the future of health care and we can only hope it improves in 2017.