You’ve probably heard it said before that technology has changed modern life. It’s a great way to stay in contact with friends and family and look for medical information, especially these days during the pandemic where remote connectivity has taken over. But today, you can also use it to manage your health care and services.
Telehealth
Telehealth involves using communication technologies and digital information to access health care services remotely to manage your care. You can access them from home and your doctor uses them to support and improve your care. There are several ways you can use it, including:
- Uploading medical data from your phone, like blood sugar levels and current medications
- Watching educational videos on relevant medical conditions
- Using apps to estimate how many calories to consume that day
- Scheduling appointments with an online patient portal
- Ordering medications online
Those aren't the only ways that you can use this technology, however. You can also get your MMJ card in Missouri online. That way, you don’t have to leave the comfort of your home to get documentation to legally enjoy a daily dose of cannabis.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t all about robots doing a health care provider’s job. Instead, it refers to hospitals and doctors looking at data sets to potentially save lives. There is information on the effectiveness of treatment outcomes and often-interconnected medical conditions. With new computing power, trends both large and small can be detected from the data. AI lets health care providers make predictions with machine learning that can identify possible outcomes. This technology uses statistical techniques so the computer can learn based on incoming data. Patterns can be identified, and decisions made without much input from humans. While that won’t replace doctors’ jobs, it can make them easier. They might be better able to make correct diagnoses, assess a patient’s risk, and offer better treatment.
Electronic Medical Records
You might think that electronic medical records (EMRs) aren't all that new. But today, most health care systems have finally adopted EMRs, allowing doctors to see the benefits of so much information available digitally. It’s about more than just having patient information available digitally. Not only do they let providers instantly access patient records, but the electronic format allows providers around the country to share the information. No matter where a patient goes for treatment, anyone who is currently treating them has the patient’s medical history. It allows providers to make the best decision about treatments. Now that so many health care systems have adopted this technology, doctors will be better able to recognize efficient treatment plans and identify patient care patterns.
Blockchain Systems
Blockchain technology involves strong the same amount of information so it takes up less digital space. It also lets providers distribute digital information without allowing copying. Currently, there are limitations in how EMRs can be transferred. Offices have to have the same EMR hosting system to share digital information. But with blockchain systems, this information won’t have limitations when it is transferred to a different health care system.
