Beyond Electronic Health Records: New Technology to Improve Patient Care

 

New technology in the health care industry is growing beyond medical record maintenance.  The latest advances serve patients’ and providers’ interests in prevention and compliance:

PDAs have merged with cellphones to play host to an array of clinical decision support applications, including those that assist providers with prescription medication and diagnostic issues.

                      

Technology in the home health sector is predicted to boom in less than ten years, as remote health monitoring becomes a mainstay for the chronically ill or recently hospitalized.  Variations on telehealth monitoring are hitting the market and are expected to revolutionize the care of patients with diabetes, renal failure, congestive heart failure, and chronic lung disease.  Patients are responsible for checking their vitals, which are then wirelessly communicated to the provider.  This sort of technology allows patients to avoid last-minute emergency room visits and subsequent hospitalizations.

 

Search engines are improving the quality of their medical query results and several companies, including Google and Microsoft, are teaming with large clinics to produce platforms for secure storage and exchange of health care information.  Platforms such as these would provide patients space to aggregate their health history, including test results, medication lists, and appointment reminders.