Medical Technology has made huge leaps and bounds over the last 50 years. From the care being given to the care that is being taught. There have been mountains moved in the cutting edge technology, to the instruments used. Many changes have been made, for the better.
With the times changing and electronic innovation, medical advances are becoming more prominent in today's society. One of the major things that have changed is the medical records. Years ago everything was paper, you never had to rely on computers, even if they crashed or not. Having everything electronic isn't always the best, especially when there is a power outage, something is hacked, or the system is down. There are still some offices that prefer to keep a paper record, solely for this purpose. I will say that things have come a long way with time, so issues are becoming less frequent. This makes it easy for Physicians that aren't necessarily in the same practice to be able to see the patient's whole record. A key point with that is the fact that many people come to the Emergency room, and aren't coherent enough to even know their name. Having electronic medical records allow treating physicians to act based on the patient's specific medical history. It is truly amazing just how important it is to have, especially now with people traveling all over for treatments.
Having technology at their fingertips helps them in more ways than one. Think about all of the surgeons all over the United States, and how extremely hard it can be to connect them all. With the help of medical video telemetry, they can come together to gather a game plan to treat some of the toughest medical cases. For example, look at the Mayo Clinics, they are located throughout the U.S. and have some of the major sites in Minnesota, Florida, and Arizona. They have surgeons who can't be in two places at once, but with the help of technology, there are times that a surgeon at one location can stream a surgery, to allow for extra eyes to peer in. It blows my mind knowing that without the technological advances that we have today, there may be people who are still waiting. They are waiting because maybe there isn't a surgeon in their area who can fully understand their diagnosis. Technology is paving the way in the medical field.
With the field changing, and technology making a bigger presence in the medical field, there are more cutting edge ways physicians can treat. For example, robotic surgeries are becoming more common, because they are far less invasive than traditional ones. With robotics comes more schooling, which a lot of surgeons can't just pick up and leave to take. Now, a lot of times they can download programs for them to train right at their facility. Robotics are emerging in more ways than one, look at the new way they can place a pacemaker. There was one that was performed right here in Iowa, in Waterloo. The Micra-transcath is a procedure where they go in through the femoral artery and attach the pacemaker to the heart. The Micra pacemaker is the size of a pill, how crazy is that? This is way less invasive and allows quicker healing time. 50 years ago they weren't even close to performing the cutting edge technology surgical procedures.
I could go on and on about all the advances that are becoming. The important thing is that 50 years ago there weren't resources available to provide such a technological care dynamic. When you sit down and think about the education, support, and opportunities that there are, technology plays a huge role;, especially in the medical field. Records, surgeries, and education for the physicians are up and coming. The years to come things will continue to evolve, where one day there truly may be robotics taking care of scheduling, and simple procedures. We wouldn't be anywhere without the help of the tech giants paving their way in the field.
