The healthcare industry has been undergoing a sea of changes. Most of these changes can be attributed to advancements in the tech field and their contributions towards healthcare and the way it works.
As such, it won’t be surprising to note that in the coming years, healthcare would become more innovative in the way it offers patient friendly care and services. And the stimulator for all this would be wireless carriers aka networks.
The Need for Wireless Carriers for Healthcare
It has been suggested that wireless carriers can make healthcare delivery more patient-friendly and cost effective. One of the first instances in this scenario is telemedicine that allows patients to get access to healthcare services from the comfort of their homes or a hotel room without necessarily visiting a hospital.
Telemedicine can greatly improve the quality of healthcare for chronically ill individuals who prefer to be treated at home rather than at a medical facility.
However, telemedicine can do more than just improve quality of life. It can reduce healthcare costs drastically as well. For instance, studies have indicated that telemedicine has the potential to save at least $21 billion in healthcare costs on an annual basis, merely by reducing the instances of hospitalization and nursing home check-ins.
On top of that, telemedicine would allow individuals to have more control of their health and monitor it on their own in a more efficient manner.
Instances which show healthcare innovation is gaining ground with networks
Telemedicine is but one instance of how networks can aid in healthcare innovation. Here are some more instances that help to prove the same point.
- Virtual Care via Telerobotics Assisted Surgery
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The world’s first ever hospital-hospital telerobotics assisted surgery was conducted in 2003 in Canada. It utilized a system called the ZEUS Surgical System developed by Computer Motion. The system was present in St. Joseph’s Healthcare facility in Hamilton and was connected to a robotic arm located in North Bay General Hospital located over 250 miles away via high speed VPNe. The system aided the robotic arm to perform a surgery successfully.
- Reflection Powered Personal Health Monitoring
Designed by AFrame Digital, Reflection Powered is a product offered by Reflection Solutions that helps connect patients with their caregivers with a simple wearable wristwatch. The watch comes with wireless connectivity options and monitors the patient’s health on a real time basis. The watch also comes with an alert feature to send signals to the patient’s mobile phones as well as his care giver in the event of a detected anomaly in the reading.
- Holistic Weight Management System
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Offered by BodyMedia, the holistic weight management system consists of an armband monitor, optional display, an online activity manager and a series of free smartphone apps. The armband tracks vital health parameters like the amount of calories burned during physical activities as well as the quality of sleep.
- In-home Health Monitoring Equipment
Manufactured by IDEAL LIFE, these equipment constitute a broad range of devices that help monitor the health condition of individuals with chronic ailments like hypertension, diabetes, congestive heart failure, obesity and asthma, etc. The in-home system operates wirelessly, transmitting the patient’s medical data to care givers in order to aid diagnosis and ensuing treatment.
With all these solutions highlighting the favorable stance of healthcare innovation via networks, it would only be a matter of time before we start to see more services and solutions like these enter the market.
Healthcare innovation is growing steadily, with networks and wireless carriers adding more fuel to this growth. With the increase in demand for patient centric care and low healthcare costs, the coming days will see a lot of advancements in the field push healthcare innovation to new heights altogether, offering the highest quality of care for patients in the most cost effective ways possible.]]>