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Healthcare tech like NLP wasn’t available years ago. But the technology is here today, decision makers need to be able to accept technology and motivate providers to be doing things the right way, the first time, at the point of care.
Meanwhile, healthcare IT trends like patient portal apps are asking patients initial questions and prioritizing schedules so caregivers can use their time effectively. With more providers and healthcare organizations using healthcare technology like mobile devices and specialized software applications, physicians can now have instant access to any type of healthcare analytics information they need, from patient health history, research information and more. And, since providers can easily carry these mobile devices around throughout the work day, the information they need is always just a touch or swipe away.
Technology and medicine has evolved over the decades from introducing doctors to new equipment to connecting patients and caregivers thousands of miles away through telecommunications. Today’s emerging trends in healthcare see patients holding video conferences with physicians to save time and money normally spent on traveling to another physical location.
Physicians and patients are both seeing the benefits that new technology in the medical field is bringing, with the increased use of telehealth services, and mobile technologies like tablets and smartphones. The COVID-19 pandemic has doctors, health systems and medical specialties providing more telehealth services than ever before. Telehealth coverage for enrollees and reimbursements to payers continue to expand, and with Medicare Advantage growth on a steady uptick, the benefits of healthcare IT trends will only become more evident over time. For example, an elderly patient recovering at home in post-acute care could receive a video consultation, without the physical and financial impact of travel costs. In any case, familiarity with telehealth services and other emerging technology in healthcare will continue to gain wider adoption.
Challenges for Healthcare Technology and Documentation
When you take an in deep look at the way healthcare technology and computers analyze medical charts, some say there’s a flaw. The flaw could be related to the way physician notation is documented and the way health technology attempts to understand it. New advances in healthcare tech create better opportunities to read through charts, understand clinical records, and contribute to creating more accurate treatment choices. If our medical students and residents of today were trained to document in a way that could help technology understand what they really mean, it could help new technology in the medical field to better analyze charts for their integrity and achieve the goal that the technology aspires to. The more organized and structured the documentation is, the better chance that a computer could read that chart, and contribute to the development of a treatment that may help that very same patient. That data could then be used to create opportunities for cures that we would have never had with hand written notes.
The Future of Healthcare Technology
The uses for healthcare technology are seemingly endless. In order to improve efficiency throughout the industry and make the patient experience as painless as possible, healthcare tech is being implemented in everything from administrative processes, to more complete and accurate diagnosis. Emerging technology in healthcare like applications that aid in identifying potential health threats and examining digital information from lab results and problem lists also contribute to the benefits that healthcare technology trends bring to medicine.
As new technology in the medical field and the evolution to value-based payment models continue to take shape we have to continually familiarize ourselves with the latest healthcare technology trends in order to control technology and not the reverse. The future of healthcare is working together with health technology, and healthcare workers have to accept emerging healthcare tech in order to stay relevant in the years to come.
https://www.foreseemed.com/healthcare-technology-trends
