Use of Technology in the Medical Field

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When one thinks of clinical informatics, usually computers and records come to mind. Clinical informatics is a topic that strives to help the general population by using technology and science to deliver safer and more efficient patient care. This is all done using the constant improvement of technology, proving that so much can be done with just one network of computers.

Imagine the following: You are a doctor with your own practice. In your office lies all of your patients’ paper medical records, all in a single room. Suddenly, without warning, a natural disaster hits and all of your patients’ records are obliterated. What do you do? Wouldn’t it be great to have another way to store those records so that they could not be destroyed? This is why EMRs (electronic medical records) were created. EMRs are stored on a server online, so that they would not be destroyed if a disaster were to strike. Along with EMRs, there are many other forms of technology that can be a great benefit to the medical field, including data mining, medical expert systems, and telemedicine.

The first major breakthrough in clinical informatics was the use of electronic medical records (EMRs). EMRs are digital versions of what were previously paper patient charts and records. These charts and records contain things such as previous medical treatment, health history, and other detailed information about patients. Many doctors and facilities love the idea of transferring all paper records to computers, but at the same time, many others are against it. That is the time when people must start to weigh the pros and cons and see which is the better option for them: switching over to EMRs or keeping old-school paper records.

There are many positives of swi...

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... location, using the video conferencing to see the patient’s body and controls to control the robot in the patient’s location to perform the surgery. Telesurgery is often used by surgeons in developed countries such as the U.S. to perform surgeries on people in third world countries who do not have surgeons nearby. The surgeons who perform these surgeries are often volunteers who just want to help.

Overall, despite the negative aspects of technology in the medical field, the pros heavily outweigh the cons. Many different uses of technology are becoming much more prevalent in clinical medicine, so the systems and techniques will only develop and get better from here on. Whether it is EMRs, data mining, medical expert systems, or telemedicine, technology in the medical field prevents many errors and betters the medical care delivery to patients around the world.

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