Technology will Save our Minds and Bodies

By: Dylan Marion 200202696

Introduction

Over the past few decades the medical field has continuously been evolving, new skills and techniques are being formed daily. With the new technology available the medical field has made even bigger leaps and bounds.

Advances in Medicine

Some of the biggest advancements in medicine have come from technology. Inventions like the MRI machine and X-rays have changed the world of medicine.

MRI and X-Rays

MRI’s and X-Rays allow people to see the insigne of a humans body by imaging without causing them harm. These imaging devices can be used for numerous reasons such as searching for abnormal masses that could be cancerous or even as minimal as a fractured arm (Bellis, n.d.).

Electronic Health Records

Electronic health records are becoming the norm across North America. Almost every hospital has an electronic charting database or is converting to it. This allows facilities to easily locate patient information, transfer of patient information from facilities and create better patient care (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 2011).

3D Printing

3D printing is a new technology that allows you to create a 3D image of what you would like. In the medical field this is huge because it can potentially eliminate the need for transplant donors. It allows you to create a human body part that you would like and utilize it in human use. This concept is growing quite rapidly and can even be seen on Grey’s Anatomy (Kotler, 2013).

Savings

Modern technology has allowed modern medicine to improve thus improving patients health and reducing their need and duration in hospitals. Over the past 15 years hospital stays have been reduced by 13%, this saves money allowing it to be allocated further into medical treatment or research (Eucomed Medical Technology, n.d.).

Medications

One of the biggest creations from modern technology is new medications. While it is import to have machine that can diagnoses patients and indicate a course of action, those protocols become redundant without the proper treatment. New drugs are being formed daily to combat new and existing conditions, these drugs are continuously evolving to ensure that the patient receive optimal treatment (University of Southampton, 2010).

Personal Experience

Being in the medical field I am able to see first hand how technology has help in our health care. Patients have a multitude of tests, operations and treatments at their disposable. Many of these treatments would not be possible without technology. Technology has vastly improved patient care and has allowed the medical field to continuously evolve.

Cons

While electronic health care has its pros it comes with a few down falls. This electronic world opens the door to possible client confidentiality breaches, this happens quite often in many facility due to the ease of gathering information. Many employes utilize this to look at patient charts that they are not responsible for and has become a big problem.

Cons

With health care facilities electing to gather their information into an electronic form they run the risk of possible software malfunctions or hackers. Software malfunctions could result in lost of information while hackers could steal this information and expose it to the world or destroy it setting the medical field behind.

Conclusion

I believe that technology in the medical field is a great component, while there may be some disadvantages to it the benefits outweigh it. Some day medicine will reach a level where humans could live for eternity.

References

Bellis, M. (n.d.) X-ray. Retrieved from: http://inventors.about.com/od/xyzstartinventions/a/x-ray.htm

Eucomed Medical Technology. (n.d.). How does medical technology benefit people?. Retrieved from: http://www.eucomed.org/medical-technology/value-benefits

Kotler, S. (2013). 5 Medical Technologies Revolutionizing Healthcare. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenkotler/2013/12/19/5-medical-technologies-revolutionizing-healthcare/

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2011). Brave New World: Technology Transforms the Medical Workplace. Retrieved from:http://www.rwjf.org/en/about-rwjf/newsroom/newsroom-content/2011/06/brave-new-world-technology-transforms-the-medical-workplace.html

University of Southampton. (2010). New technology for pharmaceutical drug development. Retrieved from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100623085839.htm