5 Examples of Smart Technology in Healthcare

Smart technology in healthcare is changing the way patients are treated with telehealth, remote care, and health monitoring technology connecting patients and doctors like never before. 

Here are 5 examples of some of the ways that smart technology is being used in healthcare to enhance the patient experience, improve proactive care procedures, and make for a healthier world.

Remote Monitoring and Automated Healthcare Systems

Remote monitoring of patients’ healthcare is a growing trend that goes beyond traditional healthcare and into mainstream culture. Smartwatches and fitness trackers have become standard for many people, monitoring health factors like heart rate, blood oxygen, irregular heartbeat monitoring, and more. 

In healthcare, providers are turning to devices to help patients by continuously monitoring their conditions and making proactive care choices based on data trends and predictions. 

For example, connected inhalers are a smart technology in healthcare that saves lives by helping patients track usage and by reminding them when to take a dosage to maintain a healthy schedule. 

66% of asthma deaths could have been prevented with smart technology monitoring like connected inhalers 

There are a number of different wearable items or devices patients can keep on their person to help improve overall healthcare, including: 

• Biosensors 
• Smart thermometers 
• Connected inhalers 

• Smart watches 
• Fitness trackers (FitBits) 
• ECG monitors 
• Blood pressure monitors 

Another key innovation in healthcare devices has been the wearable biosensors used by providers across the world to monitor patients and administer proactive care. These sensors are worn on the body and monitor vital health signs like temperature and heart rate to give their healthcare providers more information and insights on the progression of diseases, illnesses, and overall health. 

Recently, these biosensors have helped the world track the spread of COVID-19 by monitoring patients to detect symptoms and other signs of the virus to help us better understand and treat it. 

Telehealth and Remote Care

Many of us are now familiar with telehealth, which became a popular choice for healthcare providers and patients during the pandemic. With the help of conferencing technology, providers could virtually treat patients over video call 

Part of this virtual care was the use of medical portal technology to build secure online healthcare portals to help providers and patients track treatment, store health records, and collect and access data from wearable devices or clinic visits.

Connected Emergency Response Solutions

Connectivity can greatly improve the efficiency and response times of emergency care, something that can be the difference between life and death. With modern healthcare smart technology, it’s possible to share data between ambulances, physicians, first responders, and accident and emergency departments in a reasonable amount of time that allowed for a real-time response.  

Now, it’s entirely possible because of newer technology that enables faster communication, video calls with doctors from inside ambulances, quicker patient histories, and easier hospital admittance with history and conditions already established.  

On arrival, doctors can already have patient data on-hand—including vital signs, blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, etc.

Smart Hospital Management

Smart hospital management can help improve efficiency and effectiveness, improve patient experience, and help doctors by connecting digital systems to make it easier to access information like bed occupancy, device usage, equipment status, materials and supply counts, and other operational data. 

Tracking this information and using it in decision-making can improve resource management, reduce waste, and avoid situations of not having what’s needed due to bad tracking or incorrect data collection.

AI in Healthcare

Utilizing AI within healthcare can help providers make more informed decisions and greatly improve patient care with proactive care predictions, quicker data analysis, and even more rapid diagnosis.  

Using trained AI to recognize and diagnose certain diseases within test results can greatly increase the number of patients being processed and diagnosed (in some cases, 4x as quickly), reducing wait times significantly. 

In Conclusion 

Smart technology in healthcare is changing the game in more ways than one. With more monitoring treatment options available to more people, physicians can use data, AI, and other innovative new tools to make a more proactive, data-driven approach to healthcare. 

Learn more about how smart technology is changing healthcare and other industries at our resource center or contact an expert at Impact to talk about how we can help you implement innovative new technology today.