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March 05, 2020

Phillip James McGuckin Explains How Technology Impacts the Healthcare Industry


In this day and age, technology is overtaking every aspect of society. To the delight of healthcare administration experts like Allen Park, Michigan's Phillip James McGuckin, medical facilities are more equipped than ever before to treat patients and research cures for ailments. 



That said, technology’s impact on the healthcare industry is not without challenges. Phillip James McGuckin notes that transitioning into a new world of technology can create gaps in training and software integration issues.

But despite all the challenges, many concede that technology’s impact on healthcare is a positive one.

The Internet of Things in Healthcare

The 21st Century has healthcare tools at its disposal that industry experts would have never thought possible just a few decades ago.

From ingestible sensors to automated insulin delivery to 3D-printed organs, physicians have more technology at their disposal to treat and cure patients. Nurses and assistants may depend upon monitoring instruments to help them provide the best of care, including faster emergency response.

But it is not just physicians and their staff with the latest healthcare gadgets. Smart wearables and devices are helping patients monitor their health and take preventative steps to continue their recovery. These same healthcare devices are empowering healthy individuals to pursue even greater health, thus reducing the number of doctor’s visits and medications.

Healthcare and Big Data

Perhaps the greatest advancement in healthcare technology pertains to streamlined recordkeeping.

The digitalization of health records has reduced healthcare costs for hospitals, research, and patients all while being more environmentally friendly due to going paperless. Secure cloud storage empowers easy access to all healthcare professionals responsible for a patient’s care.

As a result, doctors can treat patients more quickly and accurately. Uncurable patients may benefit from more knowledgeable caregivers being able to keep their patients as comfortable as possible. Additionally, hospital staff are less likely to administer lethal treatments to patients since all relevant information is available immediately in emergency situations.

For hundreds of years, healthcare records stored on paper has led to major waste in the industry. Healthcare experts like Phillip James McGuckin have long been aware of this logistical nightmare. And technology is now able to address this problem in a sustainable way.

Cybersecurity Concerns

Whether medical data exists on physical or cloud servers makes a difference when it comes to cybersecurity and accessibility.

Physical, on-site drives may provide more dependable data recall, regardless of Internet bandwidth speeds. Generally speaking, data stored on-site is safer from cyberattack, and the organization owning the data can protect it more easily.

But maintaining physical hard drives on the premises is expensive and is more difficult to manage. Phillip James McGuckin notes that with the rise of cloud storage and software platforms, medical facilities have more storage capabilities and can save millions of dollars.

In many ways, hosting an entire organization’s sensitive data on the cloud effectively outsources that organization’s cybersecurity. Depending on how a hosting provider stores the data – there are shared and dedicated servers – an organization’s medical records and research may or may not be as safe from cyberattack.

Aside from these cost and cybersecurity concerns, cloud hosting providers are growing more skilled at protecting their client’s data. Additionally, these servers have a number of safety protocols in place to isolate and lock down servers that are compromised. These safety procedures keep data breach damage to a minimum and deny the cyber-attacker any meaningful access to sensitive information.

Blockchain Technology

For the last couple decades, altruistic programmers have been expanding the world of blockchain technology. And for the first time in history, tech experts have been able to decentralize information in a way that protects that information even better.

The cybersecurity challenges described above are relevant to centralized storage. With the all the data in one place, you can better protect that data. However, one security breach on that centralized server could mean a major loss of valuable data.

Blockchain technology splits apart every bit of information into a block, and all related blocks are held together in a chain. Each block possesses its own key to descramble the encrypted data. A breach attempt on one chain without the key will result in a security lock down on all blocks in the chain. Further, this digital log is unalterable, undeletable, and each entry is unknown to the block that stores it.

Even though blockchain technology is not yet ready for widespread use, healthcare organizations and banks are already looking for ways to increase their data security using the blockchain method once it becomes available.

Phillip James McGuckin concludes that technology is changing the world of healthcare. With the upcoming technology such as blockchain being on the horizon, the growth and development of technology within the industry is nowhere near stopping.


 
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