The world is rapidly changing! 20 years back, could you even imagine a touch screen mobile phone that you could face call your relative or friend who is living hundreds or thousands of kilometers away from you? Or could you even think about an AI-driven robot called “Sophia” that could get her citizenship in Saudi Arabia? Or any of the new digital inventions that you are using now? Probably we may think about all these and just thought it’s not possible in the near future, right? But it does, that’s how this era works!

The influence of artificial intelligence and digital technologies are implemented in every industry! As they are introducing into every field, they make almost difficult processes much simpler and shifting and evolving into an industry that is promising enough to the patients, staff, nurses, and doctors! Let’s take a look at how the medical industry is reaping from digital technologies:

Digital Records 

What to say, digital records are in a way a lifesaver! As per the Institute of Medicine’s data 1.5 million, medicine injuries occur because of poor handwriting of doctors that result in misreading prescriptions and giving patients the wrong medicine. And the more important fact is that a physician’s poor handwriting kills more than 7,000 patients a year. In most cases, the majority of doctors have poor handwriting than most kindergarteners. This stereotype doesn’t apply to everyone who appears in a white lab coat, but it has to be remembered that even a small chicken scratch could lead to serious outcomes of the result. Handwriting errors are common, but that is no reason to be told in this industry. If the nurses or pharmacists could not translate the doctor’s note properly, it can lead to incorrect treatment.

By digitalizing all the information into a readable Electronic Health Record Systems, physicians and patients can feel safe knowing the medicines and dosages are correct. Such records will be stored for a long time and can be again analyzed to understand the patient’s medical history and improve patient care. These digital records play an important role in the medical industry for a few years by providing up to date, complete and accurate data of patients’ medical history.

Wearables

Digital influence on the healthcare industry is getting into a new level here. With the introduction of smarter wearables collecting real-time, personalized data people can maintain a healthy lifestyle. And here are some wearables and their uses:

• AVA

Ava is a night-only wearable for women to help them naturally track their cycles to understand more about their pregnancy, fertility and overall health. They also track a record of resting heart rate, sleep and stress levels of the person.

• MOTIV

While most of the health and fitness calculating wearables are in the form of a smart band are common these days, and Motiv takes things differently. Motiv is a waterproof wearable ring that helps to monitor the person’s heart and sleep rate. The Motiv app helps the user to track and adjust their goals.

• FITBIT

Fitbit does more than tracking your steps, it also helps you to control music, your food logging, social challenges, track time, sleep and heart ratings, and also help you to manage call and text notifications. Wearing such a health monitor device will help you to boost your productivity and keep you on track.

• OWLET

Owlet creates cameras and wearable smart socks for babies and infants to track their oxygen levels, sleep and heart rate. COnnected with their app they provide audio/video capabilities for baby’s health monitoring purpose. They also invented a wearable for expected moms to monitor kick counts, heart rates and neonatal indicators of the baby.

• TEMPTRAQ

Temptraq is a wearable monitoring sensor for children and babies which helps parents to track the temperature of the baby. The soft patch can be placed under a child’s arm and the bluetooth sensor will monitor temperature variations of the child.

Online Courses

As life gets busy, technology makes it even easier to access. This means by all, even the education can be done online, all you need is a system and a high-speed internet connection to access the classes. With universities providing various online RN-BSN nursing programs, LPN/ADN programs, Masters Nursing Programs, and other online and hybrid nursing programs all you have to worry about is which college you have to attend to. This option is much more cost-effective than traditional programs as it doesn’t require any other school or library fees, parking fees, your car maintenance cost, or dorm room payments. These digital classes are best suited for those who are living hundreds and thousands of kilometres away or for those who have a tough job-life that has to be maintained at the time of this nursing program. You could enrol for an online course without compromising your career and life and you could plan your class schedules and connect with your lecturers online.

Worrying about your lab works? You can attend your lab works at a local hospital or clinic. Worrying about your education expenses? There are many masters, RN, LPN, RN-BSN nursing scholarships out there to continue your passion! There are AI-driven simulation labs out there to help young practitioners to help take care of their patients, even before they start their real duty.

Telemedicine

Digital records not only play an important role in patient safety, but it also opened a door to the telemedicine technology. WIth ease of access to patients’ medical data with just one click away, doctors can consult patients who aren’t really in their room. This is a great benefit for those who are living in an isolated place or those who are having difficulty traveling to a long distance physician. This is really helpful for those who are in minor or major situations, as the physician could advise them with first aid tips that they have to focus on at the time of injury. For example, not everyone knows how to react to a snake bite. Connecting getting advice from a doctor at that time will help you to understand what steps that have to take to limit the spread of venom. It’s maybe the first emergency steps that you take saves a life!

And also digital records save a lot of time here by replacing the time of patients searching for their previous medical prescriptions, photocopying and mailing all the data to the physicians and all the other time wasted in between these processes. Telemedicine also reduces the expenses of transporting the patient to another location and other hospital fees.

Faster, Smarter Radiography 

Now, X-rays are in here with the digital world. Instead of waiting for a few hours to get the x-rays, digital x-rays can be easily captured and sent from the technician’s email to the doctors or patients’. Apart from traditional radiography, digital radiography involves less harmful radiation. Digital radiography is the modern solution for x-rays using digital electronic sensors and a sensor capturing device. 

Getting a clear image quality from traditional film radiography is not always easy. There may be errors from the exposure, patient movement and positing. Zooming ability and image clarity of the digital x-rays are far better than traditional films. This digital invention is a good option to reduce radiation and also this reduces the cost of other traditional equipment of chemical processors, filing and mailing jackets and processor maintenance. With digital radiography, you no longer have to set a dark room and don’t have to worry about all the other processor costs and maintenance.