The effects that evolving technology has on important things, like healthcare, can be both obvious and unconventional. The improvements to video technology make it easier for doctors to use cameras that create more accurate diagnoses. But what about the effects that technology is having on healthcare that are not so obvious? Sometimes it is the versatility of technology that makes it truly valuable.
Internet Medical Assistance
Nothing can replace the job that a family doctor does, but there are ways that people can get accurate information on their conditions that may offer valuable assistance to patients. There are plenty of medical websites online that offer extremely comprehensive information on diseases, medications and long-term conditions that was never available before the Internet. Not only is the information widely available, but it is also up to date as well. These days, people can find emergency remedies by diagnosing their condition on the Internet and that can hold them over until they get to see their doctor.
Text Messaging
Imagine how convenient it would be if a pregnant woman could sign up for a text messaging service that sent her a text reminder each time she needed to go to a doctor’s appointment or do some other important activity to help her pregnancy along. The people who created text messaging probably never imagined that it could be a way for doctors to remind patients of their treatment obligations, but that is exactly what is happening. Patients can receive appointment reminders and even get medication information directly from their doctor via text messaging.
Connecting Through Social Media
A doctor’s office phone can get pretty busy and make it hard for patients to communicate with their doctors on a regular basis. Social media solves that problem by keeping a constant channel of communication open between doctor and patient. Patients can request or change appointments, ask for prescriptions and also address medical questions directly to their doctor through social medial. Hospitals and testing facilities can stop using the fax machine to send lab results and use social networking instead.
Reducing The Pain Associated With Care
When a person gets involved with the newer family nurse practitioner programs, he will learn about the diagnostic and surgical equipment that is in use now which was never around before. Tests and procedures that used to be painful, are now much easier on patients thanks to technology. Invasive diagnostic procedures that used to require a full day’s stay in the hospital and a general anesthetic are now done with small cameras. Doctors can get much more accurate information and do comprehensive procedures on patients without also having to deal with the discomfort those procedures used to bring.
The human race has a wonderful way of adapting new technology in ways that can assist the human condition. There are extremely intelligent people working around the clock to find ways to cure diseases and improve the quality of life on our planet. In the meantime, there are some pretty clever people finding ways to use the technology we have to make our lives better.
