Medicine has been enhancing in technology since years – from painful operations to anesthesia (a medical field as a whole). One may tend to believe that recent times have made some advancement in healthcare sectors along with a combination of both biotechnology and technology as now mini devices i.e. imaging devices are implanted inside a patient’s body.
No doubt, healthcare may be the last sector where significant amounts of communication are still done via fax and regular post as in many aspects of conducting the business of healthcare. For instance, Radiology is increasingly using digital technology but the interpretation of these images is still manual. Electronic health and medical records are also being introduced widely but there is a larger communication gap.
However, since technology has moved from analog to digital, there has been an improvement found in healthcare sector as well where patients are now treated with an ease. The new technology certainly enhances quality and safety.
One example of how technology can be used to deliver better healthcare is a recent trial by CSIRO and coworkers that provided screening for eye diseases among people in remote parts of Western Australia and Queensland. Using the nbn’s satellite broadband service, almost more than 1,200 people in their communities for diseases such as diabetic retinopathy were screened. The screening program identified 68 patients who were at high risk of going blind, including those with macular edema. In the most case these patients received treatment locally.
Now with these tele-enabled models of care to really take off, patient data must be shared between providers.
The increase in the use of digital technologies will not only boost healthcare but there will also be a significant boost in the number of IT professionals, including data scientists.
