If you’d ask anyone to predict what type of technology we will have in 10 years, chances are they would probably be wrong. Technology changes every day and has found ways to improve every aspect of our lives, but maybe its biggest and most important benefits can be seen in healthcare. Technology in modern patient care has changed the way we understand our health, it made us more aware of the risks, more responsible towards our lifestyle choices and provided us with convenient and useful options such as, for example, online medical consultations.
Technology in favor of quality life
This has become more obvious than ever in the last couple of years, with more and more people approaching their health differently – the idea of having complete control over our medical data and being able to track it has been steadily on the rise, especially supported by gadgets that allow us to gather the information easier and faster, before consulting your primary care doctor. One of the most innovative solutions currently on the market that help us monitor our health is wearable technology.
The role of wearable technology in general practice
Wearable technology in healthcare, that includes electronic devices that consumers can wear, was valued globally at 10.3 billion dollars only last year and has more than tripled in the last four years. Produced by the increasing demand of patients to have a constant overview of their health, these gadgets offer features that you’d so far had to obtain at a general practice nearby. With options like measuring heartbeat, steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned or even blood pressure, patients today can get personalized service based on their data without changing their daily routines or even leaving their house. This way, wearable technology encourages behavior that reduces visits to your primary care physician while at the same time making the visits better and more efficient.
What can we expect in the future?
As technology is progressing faster than we can even grasp, the way wearable technology is today means that in just a few years, these features will probably be more useful and complex than we can imagine. In fact, researchers and experts in the field have already announced some of the advancements we can expect in the near future – from changes that include even smaller devices with bigger memory to one of the most exciting improvements that focus on disease prevention and early detection. This, however, doesn’t mean that some of the best doctors in Amsterdam will lose their jobs; on the contrary, their work will just become more focused, efficient, medication and result oriented, while the whole health care can benefit in numerous new ways – the data will allow us to have better analysis, more knowledge, and in-depth research that will change the way we get treated globally. Finally, one of the biggest up and coming innovations include biosensors – wearable, self-adhesive patches that during research showed an 89% reduction in patient deterioration into preventable cardiac or respiratory arrest.
Thanks to innovations like these, the future is something we should all look forward to!