Technologies-in transforming patient experience

MedTech Outlook | Friday, November 30, 2018

Technologies are advancing the future of the medical industry in an exceptional way.  Technologies are helping in improving patients treatments, lowering their wait time and cost, and sometimes even saving lives.  They make physicians’ work faster, hospitals and laboratories come up with a more accurate diagnosis.

Following are some of the technologies that are transforming patient experience: 

Artificial intelligence (AI): AI’s intervention in medicine is the next big thing. AI changes the view of the way of treatment and cure. It includes technologies as machine and deep learning, facial detection, speech and image recognition, and chatbots.

• Image recognition: Medical imaging recognition is developing to integrate applications in diagnostics, treatment, and planning.

• Speech recognition (SR): SR allows physicians and doctors to avoid writing and typing patient records or diagnosis and treatment notes manually which saves huge time and efforts of them.

• Facial Detection: Software, supporting facial detection determine information about a person’s health by analyzing their face.

• Chatbots: Chatbots conduct conversation orally or by text with patients. Chatbots suggest about any medical situations or give company to the patient. 

Wearables: Wearables are considered as reliable tools for long-term health monitoring systems. Wearables are capable of observing a large variety of patients’ diseases, signs, and fitness. The devices have bio-sensing capabilities that track information about patient’s health and provide health practitioners. The wearable devices have been integrating with telemedicine and telehealth to structure the medical internet of things.

Augmented reality (AR): The technology augmented reality (AR) is capable of superimposing the digital world onto an image of the real world. AR provides users with more immersive interaction with their surroundings by merging of virtual information with the real environment. AR is capable in explaining medical conditions to patients and helps to plan medical procedures with physicians.

Virtual reality (VR), robotics and brain-machine interfaces (BMI): Combination of these technologies immerses patients in a digital world to assist recovery and promote healing. The device enables a paralyzed person in learning to walk.

Digital pills- Digital pills are embedded with sensors that get activated by the juices of the digestive system of the patients. The sensors begin transmitting medical data after consuming it.

Digital technologies and machines are giving pre-peeks of the future which generally take months and years for the physicians and doctors to see through the diseases and patients. The medical industry needs handling billions of data and taking quick decisions every day which become almost impossible for the human to handle with maintaining perfection. On the other hand, machines and technologies are capable of processing uncountable data and analyze complicated patterns in a second.