How Wireless technology is used in Medicine and Healthcare

Our healthcare system has been going through a technology evolution. In the past few decades, we have improved our methods to diagnose, monitor health conditions and alert medical professionals and patients with greater accuracy. How wireless technology is used in medicine and healthcare?

Wireless technology offers significant convenience and accessibly with the use of sophisticated devices capable of detect, monitor and feedback to designated personnel in real-time.

 1. Smart Sensor Technology

The most important stage of any treatment is the proper diagnosis of the medical conditions. Advanced semiconductor technology is capable of producing miniature sized smart sensors for any specific applications.

Tiny sensors embedded with integrated chips can sense specific medical conditions and transmit the information wirelessly to receiving device and then to a central database. Smart patches with integrated nanosensors will be available in future to detect our health conditions and alert if it exceed a predefined level.

 2. Wearable devices

Wearable technology is one of the most popular technology advancement in this decade. Daily activities, sleeping patterns, heart rate and movement tracking are possible with our wearable technology today.

One of the great advantage of these smart devices is its ability connect to our smart phone. Specially designed apps can do lot more tasks using collected information using wearables.

Health conditions over a time period can be easily monitored using our smart devices. Doctors and medical professionals will be able to use this information to better understand patient’s health condition and they could proceed with treatment if required.

Smart gadgets are getting popular nowadays and it could be specially designed to find activity tracking, stress, depression, sleeping order etc… Parents can monitor their kids with disabilities and assist them in critical conditions.

3. Smart tags and smart cards

Many hospitals have already been using smart tags to track patient records, data entry, location tracking etc… Smart health cards can replace any hardcopy test results, medical records and it offers better convenience for accessibility.

Doctors can retrieve information about a patient by just tapping the smart card without any delay. Overall efficiency and accuracy of the system can be improved using smart tags.

4. Connected Implants

Patients with specific medical conditions like diabetes can be monitored using implants which are wirelessly connected to smartphone applications. Smart sensors which can last few months can implanted into patients skin and continuously monitor patient’s glucose level.

Smart applications can detect any variations in the predefined specification set by medical professionals and trigger an emergency event if necessary. Connected contact lenses with capability to measure glucose level will be available in near future.

5. Wireless Medical Equipment

In the past, conventional medical devices used hard copy data like print out, charts or even handwritten results.  This information regarding a patient has to be interpreted and uploaded to a hospital database manually. The process of manual data entry is prone to errors and thus often lead to critical situation.

Modern equipment in medical industry uses wireless technology to transfer information. It offers greater accuracy, avoids manual tasks and anyone can access the data in real-time.

New generation medical devices can be connected to wireless networks using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and can be accessed remotely.

6. Remote Monitoring

Medical professionals are able to monitor patients remotely using specially designed smart devices in healthcare. Doctors can attend their patients from any locations and advice them for their needs via video conferencing.

Patients with long term sickness can avoid frequent visits and follow-up in the hospitals using these high tech wireless devices and technology.

7. Location tracking and security

The ability to locate a person’s location and help them in critical situation is one the future advantages of smart wireless technology in healthcare. A patient with Alzheimer’s disease or with disabilities can be easily located using GPS and their family members can easily assist them if required. It offers certain level of security and freedom for patients.

8. Internet of Things in healthcare

Internet of Things is emerging in healthcare industry faster than predicted since the beginning of this decade. IoT will offer wide range of solutions like sensors, devices and application to support huge demand in the healthcare industry.

In future doctors will be able to perform advanced surgical procedures with use of IoT devices in healthcare. Medical professional can share their knowledge and get help from experts during complex situations via real-time consulting using video conferencing.

Advantages of wireless technology in medicine and healthcare

• Accurate medical records: Patient’s data like continuous vital signs collected at the bedside will be transmitted wirelessly to medical equipment and saved to the database real-time. Automated records are more accurate than manually entering data.
• Cost effective: Automation using wireless sensors and equipment help to reduce cost.
• Real-time accessibility: accessibility of medical records for medical practitioners, authorized researchers and technology providers.
• Improved privacy and security:  since the sensors are sending data directly to the medical equipment and hospital database, personal information are more secure.
• Scalability and easy to upgrade: medical equipment using wireless technology can be easily upgraded and scalable in future. New equipment can be easily added to existing wireless infrastructure.
• Overall Patient Satisfaction: implementation of wireless technology offers better satisfaction for customers.
• Improved efficiency: implementation of wireless technology enables healthcare staffs to mange each tasks efficiently and monitor patients more effectively.

Conclusion

Healthcare industry has been evolving every year with the use of modern technology. With the technology advancement like IoT in healthcare, patients will get the best care and medical professionals will be able to work smartly and efficiently in future. Medical equipment manufacturers are aware about the huge potential in the healthcare industry and researches are in progress to improve the system.