Mobile Watch for Updating and Tracking Patients - Term Paper Example

MOBILE WATCH FOR UPDATING AND TRACKING PATIENTS I will design a mobile watch to be used by specific people at the dispense of the local GP’s for the patients who need to stay in frequent contact with. This product will also have the ability to locate patients by using a tracking system fitted in the watch. The GP will have access of an application where he/she can contact all the patients who are wearing the watch individually as their names will be arranged alphabetically, additionally, he/she can access this application anytime using his/her laptop or smartphone. The mobile will also have a panic button for emergencies, this can be used specifically by elderly vulnerable, and disabled people as it automatically sends a text to the GP’s email as well as displaying a notification to the application used by the GP who will therefore take the appropriate action required in this situation. Introduction Currently, advancements in information and technology are making it easy for people to enhance their social and economic lifestyles in the most effective and efficient way. Every day, people continue to use these technologies in order to create systems and strategies that enable them to enjoy various activities easily. Companies have also used this as a good opportunity for them to make profits be designing technologies the enhance peoples experiences. Nowadays different technologies have been invented, which easily integrates with smartphones and laptops as well as watches. In this case, people can easily keep track of the various social an economic systems effectively at their convenience, irrespective of the location. In the automobile industry, nowadays cars are being manufactured, fitted with reliable tracking systems that make it possible for the particular owners to track them from any place on the globe whenever they are stolen or someone tampers with them in a manner that is not intended by the owners or particular users. In the automobile industry and others where these technologies have been used in this manner, it has become hard for people to lose their property because they can easily track them and send the people tampering with them to the police or prosecute the in courts of law. Similarly, institutions have been training their learners on various ways of identifying opportunities in the environment and using these technologies and others to provide reliable solutions to them. Some companies have deigned incubation centres where they help to tap the innovation talents in young people, and helping them to establish their ideas for their success. These developments have been making sure that in the near future, it is going to be possible to track everybody from any corners of the earth efficiently and contact various businesses with little or no additional expenses at all. The GPS Technology Most of the tracking systems used by people and companies in their various activities have been built on the GPS technology. This technology has been very effective in these technologies because it provides all time information on the positions and timings of the particular people and objects being tracked (Rabbany 2002, 21). Additionally, these technologies can easily integrate with the GPS, which can provide reliable information of the particular position from all places on the globe since it uses the satellite technology. Global positioning System, also referred to as the satellite navigation system based in the space provides time information and location in all the weather conditions at any place on the earth’s surface provided there is no obstruction on the particular line of sight of the GPS satellites located in the space (Rabbany 2002, 26). This system has often been used effectively with the military commercial and other civil users on the globe. This system is often maintained by the government of the United States and can be accessed by anyone that has a reliable and effective GPS receiver. Since its development in the early 70s, the technology has been used effectively, with efforts done to improve its ability to tackle the emerging issues in the modern environment. Currently, advancements in technology and other new demands placed on the present systems have been effective in causing modernization of the GPS system. This means that it is possible to have an implementation of the succeeding generation of the GPS III satellites (Rabbany 2002, 27). Patient Tracking through the Mobile Phone With advancements in technology, smart phones have become common technologies used by many people in order to communicate and transact various businesses across the world. Smart phones have certain features that enable their users to perform many activities at ago (Rubenfeld & Scheffer 2006, 76). For instance, people use their smart phones to manage e-banking and other online shopping activities, they can receive and make payments in various online and offline transactions in the most effective and efficient manner. With all this increasing advantages, many developers and research have continued to ask themselves how these mobile phones can be used to enhance the effective practice in many other sectors. One of these is the health sector, which seems to have been lacking some of the most important innovation that can enhance the work of medical practitioners and nurses and their patients from any place they. With the current advancements, there is a great need to develop innovations that can assist in improving the practice of health care. This means that the technologies developed are supposed to assist the health care workers in most of the frontline areas. Many people require health services but are sometimes limited by resources that can help them to reach nurses and medical staff for diagnosis and to report on the progress of the medical interventions given to them (Croskerry 2009, 63). In this case, by developing these technologies, nurses and other medical practitioners can easily keep track of the progress of their clients, thus ensuring retention in care as well as the continuum of the particular care especially for those patients that are taking long term medication. It is possible that by using these technologies, some of the most chronic diseases like HIV and cancer among others can be dealt with in the most effective manner. It is important to note that conditions of live in the modern world are not constant. Every day, people are migrating from one part to another because of social, political and economic factors. For this reason, some of the important services like medical care ought to be structured in such a way that those patients that have to move because of the social, political and economic factors continue to receive medical attention with their doctors or other medical practitioners attending to them (California Health care Foundation 2011, 5). This concept underpins the need to have technologies that can facilitate this idea effectively without having increased costs. The need for tracking patients It is important to note that the changing people’s lifestyles have been the cause of many of the health challenges that people face. In this case, health care centres have been facing an increase in the number of people in need of medical services. While some hospitals do not have adequate staff to take care of this increasing number of people, others lack the resources to help all of them in the most effective manner. In this case, the need for technologies that cane enable medical practitioners to attend to their patients from wherever they are can be important in increasing and expanding the reach of medical services to the people (Wennberg 2010, 45). Instead of increasing bed capacity, which leads to increase in the costs of the resources and staff, medical practitioners to be supplemented by the development of approaches and strategies that can enable them deliver their services to patients. In the same way, some patients like the old and the disabled need medical attention; however the mobility challenges are a great hindrance to their access to medical services. In this case, technologies that can enable them receive medical care from their locations can be very helpful. Rather than concentrating on increasing the physical capacity of hospitals to take care of the growing numbers of patients. Hospitals can effectively increase their ability to offer various medical services by using the throughput systems, which makes it easy for them to track patients from their locations without necessarily having to move to the hospitals physically. New technologies for tracking patients play an important role in helping medical caregivers to perform their services efficiently by getting real-time information from the progress of the patients. The technologies are often effective in the provision of updates from the lab, orders as well as other important notifications that are needed to enhance workflow in the health care setting. Technologies for tracking patients offer important information that is needed in order to improve patient flow in many of the emergency departments and inpatients settings; additionally, it increases the number of transfers in the acute care for those patients coming into the facility for treatment and other medical diagnosis and examinations. It is important to note that these technologies are still uncommon in many hospitals; for this reason, people investing in these technologies stand a chance to benefit from the lucrative that still exists in many countries. Mobile Watch for Updating and Tracking Patients The project that I am designing will go a long way in enhancing medical practice in hospitals, making it easier for patients to interact with their nurses and doctors effectively. The technology will help to reduce patient deaths, especially for those disabled patients and the old, who cannot reach the hospitals to have their medical examinations done. The technologies will be available for medical practitioners and nurses to use in their daily medical operations. The patients will easily reach their doctors and nurses in the most effective manner. The technology will be available for use in on smartphones by patients and nurses as well as on laptops and other personal digital assistants. In this case, patients will enjoy and maintain their medical services on a continuous basis. Project deliverables The project I am coming up with will concentrate on helping them patients that need to stay in touch with their particular GPs in order to continue helping them with their recovery and access to medical services. Furthermore the product will be helpful to the elderly people and the disabled, as well as other patients that are most vulnerable to locate in case of medical emergencies. Some of these patients are those suffering from amnesia and the Alzheimer’s diseases, which affects their brain’s ability to remember their locations and other important factors. Additionally, the product will be helpful for patients suffering from schizophrenia, walking about and can get lost when not cared for. The technology will have the capacity to measure a person’s blood pressure especially for high blood pressure patients. It will also have the capacity to measure the sugar levels for diabetes patients. In this case, the doctors monitoring the progress of these patients will find it easy having to check and advice them effectively. It is important to note that with all these features, patients that live in low cost areas or those that do not have medical facilities will manage to get their medical attention effectively. Therefore, doctors will manage to expand their medical services in the most effective way without necessarily having to incur costs in developing new facilities and traveling to reach patients in their diverse localities. This technology will enable the GPs to effectively contact their particular patients at any time whenever they receive notifications on the technologies on their smartphones and laptops. For instance, the morphine patients will effectively take their blood tests consistently and updates on the progress of their health given to the doctors. From the readings doctors will get from the product, they will offer dosages for patients. The advantage is that the doctors will not have to keep checking on the product for any noticeable changes because the product will provide automatic updates on the progress of the patients in terms of their blood pressure, sugar level and other important factors that are essential for effective diagnosis and treatment. One of the advantages with this product is that it will make it easy for the doctors to aces the medical history of the patient without having to struggle finding the particular database for the patient manually. This is very important because it will improve the time that patients are to be attended to; making it easier for them to enjoy medical services irrespective of the distance they are from the particular medical officers. In this case, the product will make it easy for the GP in medical centres to conduct patients and listen to their views and other aspects concerning their recovery progress. Description of the project Before deciding on designing of this project, I have conducted an extensive research in the medical field to try and establish if any similar products exist. The purpose of my research was to ensure that the product that I have to finally come up with will be a new invention that will improve medical and health care, in a manner that has not been experienced before. Additionally, my research was aimed at ensuring that the product I develop would be an improvement of any products, if any existed in the health care sector. I had to read on various kinds of mobile watches in order to have a perfect understanding of how my technology would integrate in them. I also checked on the various tracking systems used in some hospitals for enhancing their health care. I focused on some of the technologies used in reading patients’ blood pressure and sugar levels as well as how this information is relayed to doctors for their use in diagnosing and treating patients. Generally, the product that I have settled to design would make it possible for patients to always be in touch with their GP at all times irrespective of their particular location. It will be using a watch that has a fairly large screen so that the patients can read effectively and communicate with their GP, who will advice them depending on the updates that the watch will be sending to the GP. The technology will effectively make it easy for the GP to have an alternative as concerns the option of staying in touch with the patients. In doing the initial test, I will make use of the Aurdino circuit board. The use of this board will be vital in that it will help me in learning how use something new, thus learning some of the things I should avoid or include in my particular technology for it to function effectively. Product methodology It is important to realize that the success of any product or technology depends on the methodology that is used in its design. The users of the product are supposed to effectively use the technology without having any complications of any kind. Before designing this project I have studied different methodologies in order to ensure that the final one that I will be easy for me to use and also to the patients and doctors who will be interacting with the product on daily basis. In the design of this product, I will rely on the waterfall methodology, which will be very effective and reliable in achieving the final goal. The choice of this methodology follows the success, which I have often experienced every time I have used it in the past (Pato 2010, 62). The waterfall methodology is often easy to use especially for people using it for the first time. In this case, I am convinced that it will be successful in ensuring that this project succeeds in the most effective manner. After its successful development, I will have to conduct a pilot for the project in order to determine the effectiveness of the methodology and the products ability to live to its expectations by achieving the intended goals and objectives. Relevance of the project to my degree course My desire to venture in the design of this product follows my knowledge and experience that I have acquired in the past in the course of my degree. In this case, it is evident that the technology is in tandem with the degree course that I am undertaking currently. In my degree course I have been studying digital communications and other embedded systems. During, my previous year, I tackled these two units at length, something that makes me want to implement the knowledge I learnt be developing a technology that can enhance effectiveness and efficiency in health care, especially among low-cost areas and population. I have learnt how to use the Aurdino board, as well as how to integrate it in the technology that I am building. In this case, I expect the final product to be successful and able to meet the stated goals and objective sin the most effective and efficient manner. After the success of this product, I look forward to developing other related products that will be helpful in enhancing many human social, political and economic systems. It is important to note that advancements in technology are supposed to be used in order to ensure that people enjoy faster services and other advantages resulting from them (Fravell 2007, 54). The degree course that I am undertaking is very helpful towards helping an individual in designing and developing digital solutions for many of the challenges affecting people in the social, economic and other aspect of life effectively. Conclusion Health care is an important factor in the life of all people on the face of the earth. In fact, it is a fundamental right that is enshrined in the constitution of most countries. Most governments are struggling in their bid to ensure that they advance reliable, quality and cost effective health care to all people in the country. However, population increase and other lifestyle challenges are continuing to make it hard for people to access this quality health care. The development of the mobile watch for updating and tracking patients will be a bigger achievement for the health care sector, which will enjoy reaching and attending to patients from all corners of the country in the most effective manner. After its quality tests are done, the product will be available for patients and doctors to use and enjoy their medical practice effectively and efficiently. Some of the people that will benefit from this product are caregivers for patients suffering from amnesia and the Alzheimer’s disease. These diseases often cause their people suffering from them to have memory lapses that cause them to lose their way much easier. In most cases, these patients have often been involved in accidents on the road, because they could not be traced effectively. The development and use of this product will play a major role towards ensuring that these patients and others having mental challenges can be traced by their medical doctors at all times (Mahmud 2012, 26), giving them dosages that can relieve their diseases, thus aiding them in the recovery processes. Bibliography California Health care Foundation. 2011. Using Tracking tools to improve patient flow in hospitals. Retrieved from, Croskerry, P. 2009. Patient safety in emergency medicine. Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia. Fravell, M. 2007. Joint patient tracking application/veterans tracking application: A joint platform for interdepartmental data exchange. U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA. Mahmud, T. 2012. Better patient feedback, better healthcare. M&K Publishing, Cumbria, England. Pato, J. 2010. Biometric recognition challenges and opportunities. National Academies Press, Washington, D.C. Rabbany, A. 2002. Introduction to GPS the Global Positioning System. Artech House, Boston, MA. Rubenfeld, M., & Scheffer, B. 2006. Critical thinking tactics for nurses: Tracking, assessing, and cultivating thinking to improve competency-based strategies. Jones and Bartlett, Sudbury, Mass. Wennberg, J. 2010. Tracking medicine a researchers quest to understand health care. Oxford University Press, New York. Read More