Healthcare industry has come a long way in India as well as globally. It is comparable to what it looked and did till a few a decades ago.  The industry was primarily about clinics, hospitals, chemist shops and pathology labs. Healthcare was about a traditional set up with manual records of patients and long unending queues. There were private nursing homes too, but they came for a cost. And advanced treatments were generally not within the reach of a common man.

Shift from Traditional Set-Up

We know how advent of internet and technology changed the world and how transformed every aspect of our life. It transformed healthcare industry too. Technology turned around the healthcare industry to become what it is today.

Technology solutions in the healthcare industry are helping the healthcare and medical industry to improve in many ways. Technology plays a very crucial role in reforming medical care by bringing down costs, the accuracy that technology has made possible in performing tests, precision in diagnoses and prescribing treatment has gone to minimize instances of duplicate tests or performing the same procedures again that was a common scenario earlier. Technology has rendered many traditional systems healthcare industry followed until a few years ago, redundant.

Primary changes that digitalization brought started with maintaining of patients and stock records on computer. But this was soon to change as technology was ready with more to offer to take healthcare industry on a different level.

Technology Digitalized Diagnostic & Therapeutic Equipment

Rapidly transforming medical technology and availability of diagnostic and therapeutic equipment supported by technology changed practice patterns of doctors, revolutionizing and changing the face of healthcare industry across the world.

Technology Digitalized Doctor-Patient Interaction

If you observe you will notice that digital transformation has changed the way doctors and patients interact. Integration of IT with network is a new phenomenon where digital and human expertise combines to examine and diagnose health condition among patients. These are big feats for healthcare industry.

With time technology is becoming more advanced, affordable, faster, and has gone to serve multiple purposes impacting the health care segment like never before; rom diagnostics to prevention to the management of chronic conditions technology is used at every step.

Systems are advancing and moving away from the traditional office or hospital setting towards creating automated and home environment by introducing self-monitoring tools for patients.

Technology Created Apps and Tools to Self-Monitor Health

It is primarily our genes that are responsible for our health; but we know that our behavior also impacts our health in a big way. And if we can identify our bad-for-health behavior and change it, it can improve our health, and reduce onset of chronic conditions. Technological innovations are helping to develop new methods to tap into such behavior. For examples devices and apps are available that buzz when there is a rise in blood sugar or a little before; likewise for blood pressure, hydration level, bad posture, etc. Without technology this cannot be imagined.

Technology & Healthcare Merged to Offer Better Patient Care

The pace and ease with which technology and healthcare are synching and merging, patient care is going to improve and become much more efficient. Because of technological intervention the networking and sharing of information amid doctors working on the patient is taking big leaps, leading to more accurate diagnoses and treatment.

With help of technology, now doctors are able to electronically store medical images, patient’s record of every visit that they can easily refer to and access, if they want to compare it with previous images. Technology also enables doctors to share their patient’s complete medical record with other consultants and specialists for better diagnosis and treatment.

Technology Introduced Concepts like Tele Consultancy, Telemedicine

Technology has also introduced concepts like Tele Consultancy, Telemedicine, HIS, Electronic Health Records and other such web-based services; a convenience that has witnessed a steep increase in the number of digital patients. More and more corporates are deploying a robust IT infrastructure to avail of this technology to facilitate and extend medical benefits to the employees.

Technology/IT has augmented growth in data, encouraged practice of storing health information and medical records electronically. IT has also eased collaboration vis-à-vis data exchange, workflows and mobility.

Future of Healthcare & Technology Combination Looking Up!

Presently IT in healthcare is going through a phase where a lot is being done to improve financial management of technological evolution. The shift to mobile devices, wireless technology and cloud computing is also visible which will bring down system costs further along with improving workflows.

A lot to look forward to, considering Indian healthcare sector is all set to grow in the years to come!