Technological Advancements in Transforming Healthcare Industry - Term Paper Example

How technological advancements are transforming the entire health care industry

Texas Women University

Amanda Thomas

November 18, 2016

Introduction

An unparalleled rate of technological evolution has been transforming almost all aspects of human life. It is currently possible to make a booking for a table in a restaurant, call a cab or even lease an apartment from anywhere in the world at the click of a button. Nevertheless, not all industries have been embracing this digital transformation. For instance, healthcare is potentially the most important service that is usually taken for granted. Regrettably, the traditional way of doing things requires a makeover that will align it with the increasing expectations of the present world. The era of having to wait for a long time to access primary health care has no place in the current twenty-four-hour setting. Getting appointments slotted for two days after booking them rarely delivers a positive response for patients (Weerakkody, 2012, p. 53). Later, when patients find themselves in waiting rooms that are germ ridden, then they are advised to get rest and take some chicken soup, they can get frustrated with the entire healthcare experience.

Different technologies are changing the manner in which people access healthcare with exceptional compositions of technology, engagement, and innovation. The different services are extremely attractive to businesses, which can provide their workers with comprehensive healthcare services to make sure they are not forced to travel long distances for appointments. The most significant changes in the attitudes of patients towards healthcare are that people are becoming more proactive instead of reactive to issues of health. Conventionally, people waited up to the point where they became ill so that they could visit a health institution, where they expected they would be made better. However, presently, numerous people have embraced prevention before occurrence of diseases.

Nevertheless, the issue is that currently, not a lot of the available personal data is actionable and the industry is waiting for the critical moment when its professionals will be able to monitor data in real-time and identify when there are changes that may demonstrate a risk to the health of the patient. Even though there is a lot of red tape and concern about privacy that must be overcome before attaining privacy, it is still practical and achievable. In future, healthcare may be comprised of smartphone alerts that inform patients when their personal data indicates anomalies. Within a short while after being notified, the patient could get access to a doctor. This form of technology is already in place, and it will not be long before the actual benefits are seen across the industry.

How technological advancements are transforming the entire healthcare industry

From a scientific point of view, various healthcare endeavors have offered a foundation of knowledge that is continually deepening, varying from better understanding of the DNA of humans to additional development of novel medical applications. The paper will discuss some of the health care technologies such as genome, cloud computers, data recording and updating tools, microchips, Watson supercomputers, Smartphones, social networks, medicinal coding and billing tools, DNA sequencing tools and The ICD-10.

Advancements in technology and science provide new comprehensions into the technicalities of human genetics. Possibly, more importantly, space is quickly developing new methods of using the information in the delivery of personalized healthcare. Through the next decade, there is the likelihood that scientists will concentrate on profoundly sequencing components of the genome that seem to have a high level of clinical usefulness.

Progress in biotechnology blends three utterly complicated concepts including technology, new science and sensitive personal data which is needed to support the already complex healthcare industry (Kabene, 2010, p. 152). Because of the complicated characteristics of these features, communication and appreciation of the benefits of genetic testing may be a challenge. It makes it critical to explore the present advancements before looking at the future.

Testing that is faster and more cost effective is possible through advancements in technology in various aspects such as handling of liquids along with miniaturization of technology used in sequencing into microchips. Nevertheless, automation is only one area of the puzzle of technology as far as personalized healthcare is concerned.

From a technological perspective, healthcare information has become increasingly accessible because of various platforms such as those that allow genotyping in single workflow through sequencers. Additionally, cloud computers have also played a critical role in processing, update, and analysis of huge amounts of data, which require being sequenced. This is a key aspect for some reasons. To begin with, the degree of data currently being generated is too complicated and large to be processed by one processor. While developing an evaluation and decoding the data from one node may take between two and three days on the servers used by hospitals, platforms based on clouds can deal with up to twenty nodes and finish the analysis within minutes. Secondly, data is supposed to be shared if doctors, patients, and scientists are to attain the entire value of sequencing DNA. The capacity to share information while maintaining preservation of strict measures of security has made the development of cloud computing an important aspect of personalized healthcare.

All the technology and science must equalize to become a high targeted and personal approach for efficient treatment to become a reality. Among the examples of this potential is a person being treated for breast cancer who decides to undergo genetic testing that reveals that the patient is resistant to the main drug used in the treatment regimen while at the same time being resistant to opioids for relieving pain. This kind of knowledge has a reshaping effect on the treatment that will be given, the quality of life of the patient and the manner in which the patient approaches health (Olla and Tan, 2009, p. 8). The expectation is that advancements in science and technology in various aspects of healthcare will create more insight for this form of personal knowledge and changes in lifestyles to occur more often and for more people.

It is not challenging to perceive a future whereby the entire genome of a person is sequenced when they are born, and each aspect of the medical care of the person is then affected by that knowledge. To attain the objective of this degree of precision in medicine, it is imperative to continually overcome the present obstacles in appreciating the value of using technology as well as the associated costs. As far as clinical utility is concerned, it is exceptionally challenging to utilize information from a whole genome successfully. Nevertheless, the healthcare industry has been making tremendous progress in regards to identification of particular forms of drugs that work effectively for particular populations of patients. This has significantly changed the course of treatment and created new and targeted therapies; furthermore, presently, this knowledge is enhancing individual treatments. Ultimately, it will result in information that will allow pharmaceutical corporations to create better drugs.

In regards reimbursement, payers are in a dilemma concerning the manner in which they can compensate for genetic testing. The issue is who to test, and for what, considering scant data that will return on investment. However, prevention of diseases is more expensive for payers and is clearly better for patients. This is among the reasons why numerous patients show a willingness to pay for genetic testing on their own. With healthcare becoming more personalized, the connection between patients and doctors is likely to change considerably. The connection is evolving into a profound partnership in that all the doctors and patients collaborate to appreciate health factors and risks comprehensively. Sequencing of genes contributes to new data that cannot be refuted and is likely to create a new degree of appreciation to the patients and physicians.

With the push towards precision and personalized healthcare continuing to gather momentum, technology will play a bigger role in daily interactions between patients and doctors. For instance, when considering the issue of obesity in the US; even though some people may blame the fast food culture, it is imperative for public health programs to be aware of the number of people who have a genetic disposition to become obese. With this kind of insight, providers must assist patients likely to become obese to concentrate more on eating healthy foods and exercising so that they can understand that their ideal weight may be different from those of other patients.

The tools that provide patients with the correct drugs, at the appropriate doses and at the precise time are already available (Almgren, 2013, p. 129). Utilization of DNA sequencing towards further personalized healthcare is increasing past merely the purview of big urban academic centers and into the reach of the patients. With the advancement of technological innovations, there is potential to discover a new method of being able to offer treatment to specific lifestyles, preferences, and needs with the aim of achieving a better outcome that is more targeted.

Through the centuries, new medical technologies and advancements have created changes in healthcare. The healthcare industry has typically brought together the brightest and best of the society to assist the ones in need. From treatment of cancer to delivery of babies, to dealing with cardiac cases, physicians have come up with technology and enhanced their approaches. The main issue that contemporary doctors face is a broken healthcare system along with inflexible insurance companies. They have been able to work through these challenges to offer excellent care to patients and successful novel approaches. With the improvement of biomedical research, doctors are likely to gain better skills in dealing with health issues in a cheaper way. The three key challenges that are transforming the healthcare industry include medical practice rules, population science, and medical records.

Population science typically entails studying illnesses and health in specific groups. Previously, workers in community health largely used this area of scholarship when plagues occurred. Currently, novel technology has allowed the research of population science to transform healthcare. Through evaluation of patients in general, physicians can consider the rate of death, occurrence of illness and life span in the entire healthcare system. At the individual level, the doctor can be able to treat illnesses. In instances where the whole population is considered, problems like obesity, heart diseases, and cancer are a growing epidemic. Population science can enable physicians to find large-scale means of curing such epidemics rather than merely treating patients. Such epidemiological aspects are currently being used in clinical studies in the enhancement of medical procedures.

Further advancements in technology have resulted in the use of evidence-based guidelines which enable doctors to understand the possible causes of symptoms and the most appropriate ways of treating them (Walhout, Vidal and Dekker, 2013, p. 464). In some nations, the national healthcare structure is created in such a manner that the doctors have prompt access to different statistics from their computers. Since the healthcare field has been changing, new disorders and diseases have been discovered. It is not possible for a single doctor to identify and treat each disease in the globe. Through evidence-based guidelines, they can be able to attain this, and even though the guidelines may fail to offer perfect success rates, they can considerably enhance diagnosis of illnesses.

Healthcare professionals working with medical bills and codes are aware of the advancements associated with technology. In the past years, medicinal coding and billing has evolved from being a system based on paper to a computerized structure. Based on the HIPAA regulations, medical practitioners have had to come up with software that can send electronic bills. Doctors have been reaping significant benefits from the drive towards making medical records electronic. Through simple steps, physicians can view all the care given to a patient and may be in a position to identify possible illnesses. New technology can also assist doctors to carry out statistical documentation of the entire population. It may further assist in making healthcare systems clearer and may be included in reimbursement data. With the changes taking place in the healthcare structure, unnecessary costs will be prevented, and it will be easier to get reimbursements required when treating a patient.

The ICD-10, which is also referred to as the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, is the most current revision of diagnostic tools. Essentially, this categorization has allowed coding of symptoms, external causes, unusual findings, and illnesses. It is comprised of more than fourteen thousand different codes along with additional sub-categorizations. WHO offers online information while at the same time provides ICD-10 training for physicians. In the US, the ICD-10 is comprised of more codes totaling to seventy-six thousand. The instrument can monitor diagnoses and enables a nation to monitor the rate of morbidity. It is further utilized in retrieving and storing diagnostic information.

In the event that they want to begin utilizing the ICD-10, clinics typically have to set up novel software. When such is attained, all employees are supposed to be educated and trained on the manner in which guidelines should be followed. Before using the ICD-10, doctors are supposed to check the storage space needed and seek additional training programs online. Numerous association websites also provide instructions with other tools such as patient kiosks assisting in improving the efficiency of new software.

Ultimately, advancements in technology have also assisted doctors to evaluate data to offer enhanced diagnosis and treatment. For instance, IBM researchers have been creating a supercomputer referred to as Watson. This computer is supposed to assist doctors to enhance their diagnosis while at the same time recommending treatments. There is the likelihood of doctors depending on Watson to monitor the history of patients, remain updated on medical research and assess treatment options. Further technology has assisted doctors to communicate better with patients. This has been done through the development of translation programs for doctors and other people in the healthcare industry (Bushko, 2002, p. 247). This collection of products includes mobile applications that allow doctors to speak to them when seeking answers on whether patients have allergies or translation on messages to other languages instantly. Considering there are more than fifty million people in the US who are not fluent in English, such programs can be beneficial for doctors who would normally depend on translators as well as medical assistants to better communicate with their patients.

Advancements in technology have also allowed doctors to connect with other doctors. In this sense, social networking can assist doctors to collaborate when taking care of their patients. This is the key principle behind social networks that can be used by doctors. Through such social networks, doctors all over the globe can collaborate with each other online on challenging cases. Further, doctors can also be connected to their patients through websites that provide patients with medical consultations thus saving trips to emergency rooms. The medical advice given to patients, in this case, is supposed to come from top medical practitioners.

Technological advancements further assist patients to remain healthy. An increasing number of smartphone applications and devices seek to assist people to remain active, get better sleep and eat healthy foods. These applications include pedometers, which are used to monitor day-to-day sleep and activities while using social networking along with gaming to further encourage users. There are also silent alarm clock and sleep monitoring applications, which monitor and assess the quality of sleep of an individual through time and offers suggestions to assist the individual to attain better health. Additionally, there are numerous applications that track menus, monitor foods and count calories that can be used by those conscious about their diets.

Conclusion

In a world that is becoming more and more digitally connected, new technology has enabled the healthcare field to make significant changes, which have streamlined the system. Software programs allow monitoring of population statistics to be monitored and can assist when carrying diagnosis. Furthermore, novel billing approaches and monitoring processes make it relatively simpler to identify the past treatments of patients. This decreases paperwork, results in increased rates of successful treatments and enables doctors to assess entire populations when dealing with epidemics. Regardless of all these new advancements, it is still dependent on the physician to make sure that the quality of healthcare is exceptional. As far as treatment is concerned, all the appropriate tools in the globe can only assist if the physician has sufficient skills to perform particular procedures.

It is evident that technology is proving the health care sector with the much-required upgrade, from tools that translate medical terms and symptoms to mobile applications that can assist the patients to live in a healthier way. Even though a lot is still in the experimental phase, the advancements in technology can assist in saving money regarding provision of health care and enhancing treatment of patients. For instance, being able to connect with physicians easily will not require costly and needless trips to the ER. Technology will allow doctors to collaborate with their colleagues and other professionals in new methods and utilization of computers in the analysis of medical and patient data, enabling them to offer efficient treatment. With the expansion of technology regarding the horizons of medical interaction and medicine, it is clear that healthcare is entering a new era.