When specialists in the medical field hear about many of today’s incredible technological advancements, they often start to worry about the future. They worry about robots and medical devices taking away their jobs.
Will robots eventually take away jobs from healthcare workers, nurses, and even doctors? Healthmarkets.com teaches us about the future of the healthcare system. With technology, it’s really difficult to predict where things are headed, so no one can confidently say what’s going to eventually happen. But for now, there are some amazing technological advancements that are sweeping through the medical field, and these changes are certainly providing positive results that we certainly hope continue for many years to come.
As an example, prototype tooling is phenomenal because it helps mass-produce vital medical devices like heart monitors, forceps, instrument blades, surgical electronic connectors, and much more. These devices are crucial to our health and well-being while we are in the hospital, so they’re obviously important and something we should all appreciate instead of fear.
With that said, we’ll now take a look at some of the positive advancements happening in the healthcare field from a technological standpoint. You’ll truly come to appreciate the benefits of these developments and everything they can do for healthcare on the whole.
Using Virtual Reality in Medicine
This may seem far-fetched to some of you, but it’s true. The lives of many physicians and their patients are changing because of progressions in virtual reality. In fact, it’s believed that people will be able to watch operations in a virtual-reality setting at some point in the future and it will feel like you’re wielding the scalpel yourself.
As far as doctors and patients are concerned, VR units help new doctors and doctors that have been working in the field for years to empathize and experience what their patients are going through. In fact, there’s one virtual-reality program that allows medical professionals experience what it feels like to age for seven minutes. Participants will live life as a young person, and then they’ll have the ability to live as if they were a 75-year-old man or woman experiencing visual and hearing impairments.
The ultimate goal of this technology is to help young doctors connect more with their aging patients. By having them experience exactly what it feels like to get old, these doctors will be able to feel compassionate and empathetic toward older people, which will ultimately help them provide better care for the aging over the long run.
The Advancements of Wearable Healthcare Devices
Healthcare’s future is heading in a positive direction as far as wearable medical devices are concerned. These devices will empower patients to improve their own health through the use of technology. How so?
For starters, wearable medical devices are perfect for those looking to improve their health by losing weight. You’ll be able to use the device to track your weight, track your blood pressure, track how many steps you’ve taken, and gain knowledge of other important facts and figures that will let you know if you’re on the right path to health.
Believe it or not, there are medical devices currently being developed that will let you know if you are experiencing too much stress or not. When using a device like this, you’ll know when your stress levels are too high so you can take the necessary steps to lower them through deep breathing, meditation, prayer, and medication. Having a device like this available to you at all times makes it easier than ever to keep track of your mental state and stress levels and determine when it’s time to slow down, calm down, and take it easy.
Truthfully, we’re only just touching the tip of the iceberg with the potential of wearable medical devices, sensors, trackers and the like. It’ll be interesting to see just how far technological advancements can go to improve upon current models and develop bigger and better ways to help people get and stay healthy.
Revolutionary Drug Developments
While most people think of electronics when they think of technological advancements, they forget that drug developments are also a major medical progression being improved with today’s latest technology. It’s also necessary to note that the current process for developing new drugs is very expensive and it takes too long. But silico trials are on the verge of changing all of that.
What is a silico trial? It’s a method that requires the use of individualized computer simulations that can thoroughly evaluate a medical intervention, device, or medicinal product like a new drug. So the computer simulated environment can make it faster, cheaper, and more convenient to develop new drugs that will help cure some of the most fatal diseases we currently face around the world. Plus, this technology can also help improve medical interventions and devices as well, so it’s a win-win no matter what way you look at it.
Using Robotics to Improve Medical Procedures
As far as health care is concerned, the use of robotics is one of the quickest growing and most exciting fields currently in development at this time. Why is robotics such an exciting field? It’s exciting because robots can be used in a number of different ways to help improve the way we practice medicine.
Most important of all, surgical robots are an amazing improvement that can completely eliminate human error on the operating table. While we do not believe robots will completely eliminate the need for surgeons, we feel robotics will improve surgeries tremendously.
Sometimes it’s nearly impossible to make a particular surgical incision or remove an organ due to human flaws and inaccuracies, but a robot can accomplish this task without ever making any mistakes. So the possibilities are endless and the uses of robotics definitely have a great future in the medical field, especially when it comes to surgical procedures.
Conclusion
The advancements in healthcare are truly revolutionary, and they will only get better as time moves forward. So pay attention to the latest information and developments, be curious and bold, and understand the future of medicine and where it’s progressing in 2017 and beyond.
