Healthcare in the Digital Age: The Employee, the Patient, the System
Dr. Search Engine
The effective modern medical professional must possess some a certain level of technological proficiency. An ever-increasing amount of valuable and detailed medical information compiled from all around the world is available online. While the wealth of online healthcare data has made treatment more accessible, it can become a breeding ground for misinformation. The ability to efficiently sift through the vast amount of data online to find relevant and accurate results is becoming more and more important in the sector. This is especially notable when it is considered that 72% of internet users say that they looked for healthcare information online in the last year.
Medical Instruments for Consumers
Devices such as smartphones and smartwatches possess more and more health tracking features that can aid the general public. The current leading smartwatches possess fall detection, blood oxygen tracking, a plethora of heart health features, sleep reports, medication tracking, personalised fitness information, and more. Recent studies have demonstrated that smartwatches are accurate at detecting heart irregularities. Researchers have also noted that this technology has been highly effective as identifying serious health discrepancies before they develop into critical conditions. With advanced medical equipment becoming more accessible, the public is more precisely and personally able to manage their health.
Digital Application
As with many job markets, the healthcare sector has gradually shifted in the direction of the digital. Online job boards such as Indeed and LinkedIn have allowed employers to curate specific job postings and find candidates perfectly tailored for the designated role. Healthcare recruitment specialists leverage digital tools to target ideal candidates for employers, freeing the healthcare professionals to focus on treating patients instead of managing staff. What’s in it for the applicants? Further knowledge of and access to opportunities, paired with the ability to apply and in some cases even complete the interview process remotely.
Electronic Health Records
As of November 2023, 90% of NHS have established digital records, compared to 45% in September 2022. As time goes on, digital content has consistently improved capacity, flexibility, affordability, accessibility, and overall performance. Digital systems provide more objective templates and have been shown to reduce human error. Furthermore, using digital record can prevent physical clutter and save paper. As with many processes, the transition from paper records to digital records was facilitated by the COVID19 pandemic.
Telehealth
Telehealth is the term used to describe the rising practice of engaging with a medical professional digitally. 37% of Americans used a Telehealth service in 2021. While these numbers did dip following the stabilisation of COVID19; the pandemic put the systems and experience in place for various hospitals and clinics around the world to support Telehealth practices. Telehealth has proven to be an incredible support system for patients who require medical attention, but lack mobility due to their conditions. In addition, it can connect experts and specialists to patients in different geographic regions who may not have a local clinician with such expertise.
AI Assistance
Artificial Intelligence continues to make incredible strides in various sectors, with healthcare being no exception. AI is increasingly becoming better than humans in certain tasks, such as medical imaging. As AI continues to improve, more and more use cases will become practical for medical professionals. Other fascinating and increasingly complex tasks such as diagnosing disease and creating personal health profiles are starting to be effectively performed by AI. While AI has the potential to provide a higher standard of care, some worry about the effects that enhanced AI will have on the job market and healthcare employees.
Cybersecurity
In contrast to many of the exciting developments that come with the digitisation of healthcare is the growing concern of cybersecurity. This issue is not unique to healthcare, but the medical field is a unique target due to the sensitivity of medical information. Additionally, the field has historically neglected cybersecurity and technological vulnerabilities. As private health records are digitised en masse, cybersecurity must become a fundamental part of this increasingly streamlined process in order to protect the privacy and wellbeing of both healthcare staff and their patients.
Virtual Reality Surgery
Recent years have seen a surge in the use of VR-based surgical training programs. There are multiple benefits of using simulations to train surgeons. VR simulations allow the surgeons to master their technique before ever physically touching a patient. VR trained surgeons were six times less likely to make errors on a Gallbladder dissection than their non-VR trained counterparts. This technology has incredible potential, but the high cost of implementation is still too large of an obstacle to overcome for many who would benefit from it.
Genetic Engineering
Genetic technology is currently experiencing a golden age of discovery and development. CRISPR, a precise modern genome editing technology, was first discovered in the late 1980s and has continued to become more precise. As CRISPR has improved, gene therapy and treatments for patients in need that were previously confined to the realms of science fiction have become more possible. Alternatively, skeptics are concerned about the eerie doors these tools might open. “Designer” babies, a biological division between rich and poor, or a tyrant creating genetically enhanced soldiers are just some of the uneasy outcomes that this technology could support should it get into the wrong hands.
3D Printing
Recent advancements in 3D printing promise to make the healthcare experience more personal than ever before. Traditionally, medical treatment is generally very standardised. Creating hyper unique solutions for individual patients has been considered extremely expensive and time consuming. 3D printing is starting to make more individually tailored healthcare a reality. From individually tailed pharmaceutical dosages and ingredients, to personally molded prosthetic limbs: 3D printing has shown the potential to greatly reduce cost and production time in creating effective and individually catered medicine and tools. As the technology becomes more accurate and accessible, it will be utilised more as a means of providing patients the personalised care they need.
