Healthcare is seeing a surge of technology to better support the way patients are treated or with improved operational functions that are efficient. These advancements create new and effective solutions to clinical operations, leaving behind slow and outdated practices. Useful technology like healthcare-related apps enhance medical care and provide quality service to patients.

How?

Certain new technologies have improved the way patients and their physicians interact; providing physicians more time with their patients.

An example: Allergy Apps

App technology has personalized many important functions, from writing to business organizing. Allergy apps have allowed phone users to document, analyze and manage the symptoms of their allergies. Using allergy apps, patients can now easily manage the information that they can provide their doctors. Propeller Health, for example, allows patients with asthma to track their symptoms, customize medication schedules, and share asthma and COPD data with their physicians. With such apps available to patients, patient-doctor interactions can be made easier and more productive.

Apps for Doctors

Patients are not the only ones that can benefit from mobile medical apps. Certain apps can greatly assist a physician in their day-to-day functions. The Medscape app can help medical practitioners quickly look up dosages and other important info, while 3D4Medical lets physicians use portable 3D technology to examine and analyze the human body.

Apps for Patient-Doctor communication

When it comes to apps for patients and doctors, there is little overlap, as most medical app companies create products that cater only to one or the other, never both. However, both patients and physicians are united in their need for better communication with each other. Sync MD is a mobile app for medical professionals and patients alike, allowing patients to digitally store their medical records and prepare them for their doctors. Sync MD can facilitate better communication between patients and physicians, granting patients agency while relieving doctors of extra paperwork.

Expanded Horizons

Aside from apps, technology can also be used to tackle illnesses and medical dilemmas in new and unexpected ways. Virtual reality, for example, has given physicians and medical students an all-new medium to analyze the interior organs of their patients. By utilizing VR technology like Microsoft Hololens, doctors can study organs and other body parts for surgery more effectively. On the patient side of things, VR tech can be used to facilitate various beneficial health functions, from treating memory loss to assisting in mental illness therapy. The intimacy of VR is a complete turnaround from the alienating effects of certain EHR systems. Instead of merely processing patient data, VR treatment can give patients a more active role in their treatment, while also allowing physicians to use such technology to interact with their patients for efficiently.

Conclusion

Patients are human beings — they seek efficient and valuable interactions. While the digital age does have its downsides — namely, how it can foster isolation from real-life peers — technology can help bridge such gaps and remedy issues of communication, for customers and professionals alike.