Technology at the service of health

 Technology at the service of health

precision in diagnosis and results, less intervention and invasion into the body, greater access to services and growth in telemedicine are some of the positive aspects.

It is no secret to anyone that technology has permeated various fields, with a positive impact not only on the speed of processes, but also on the well-being of the human being. Health has not been immune to this influence and today there are numerous procedures to which medical technology has been applied: in the diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of diseases or medical conditions; also online medical records, mobile devices for the treatment of ailments, diagnostic equipment, automated processes and even medical consultations on the Internet are among the advances.

It is enough to know that several centuries ago the only way to detect if a person suffered from diabetes was to verify if the urine test attracted ants. Today it can be done at home, without the need for a laboratory test, using a glucometer. And in a few years it will be enough to have a device that connects to the cell phone and instantly sends the information to the doctor.

Figures from the statistics portal Statista report that in 2013 there were revenues of 366,000 million dollars in the world for technologies applied to health and it is estimated that investment in research and development by 2020 will exceed 29 billion dollars. Likewise, the numbers reveal that for 2015 three companies in the United States and Europe dedicated to this industry exceeded 10 billion dollars in revenue and another 27 registered between 1,000 and 2,500 million dollars.

"Although there are serious challenges, the benefits of implementing technological advances in the medical sector are enormous, such as improved quality of care, greater comfort for patients and better results in general," said Dawn Milliner, director of the department. of Medical Informatics from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, in an interview for The New York Times. Fabio Restrepo, medical director of the Laboratory and Blood Bank of the Somer Clinic in Rionegro (Antioquia), agrees on this, and considers that health technology has come to fill specific human capacities to better assist people and give them a better management. successful disease.

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Among the positive aspects, Restrepo highlights the precision of the diagnosis and the results, less intervention and invasion in the body, speed in the recovery with less invasive interventions, better access to services by being able to massify them and the reduction of displacement to areas of attention by telemedicine and delivery of results online.

AUTOMATION, A KEY FACTOR

In vitro diagnosis (IVD), a test on which 75 percent of clinical decisions are based, is one of the methods that has witnessed the great influx of technology, represented in new tests, optimal management of workflows and reduction in response times to project the status of a disease, select the correct treatment, and monitor patient response.

According to a report by the consulting firm Markets and Markets, the IVD industry will reach 75.1 billion dollars by 2020, with an annual growth rate of 5.8 percent, driven by the increase in the world of chronic diseases and the accelerated aging of the population. At the Somer Clinic, for example, a robot has improved response times in the analysis process, the accuracy of the results, the safety of the result, as well as biosafety for laboratory workers and professionals by not directly handling the samples.

"Without direct intervention on the samples, health professionals have been able to dedicate themselves directly to the analysis of the results, contributing their knowledge there and reducing the reprocesses and errors of the analytical phase to almost zero", Restrepo highlights. In the opinion of this surgeon specialist in clinical pathology, the measurement techniques designed in the 80s and 90s, which allowed the introduction of serial analysis of samples together with intelligent software, has been one of the greatest technological changes that has been incorporated in labs in recent decades.

This, says the expert, has allowed the veracity of the final data due to the precision in the biochemical-molecular analysis to have an exponential impact on the management of the diagnosis, the follow-up of the disease and its prognosis.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

There are several advantages that continuous technological advances in the health sector will bring in the coming years. Laboratories will increasingly be able to perform tests in-house and reduce their dependence on outsourcing services, as well as increase their productivity. Similarly, medical staff will perform functions beyond routine operations, facilitating patient interaction, finances, marketing services, and strategic planning.

According to Restrepo, in the near future large cities will have health systems made up of large monopolies that will be able to provide patients with remote services dominated by telemedicine, one-click appointments and almost immediate diagnoses.

The examples of these innovations are many, highlights the specialist, such as the possibility that the drugs arrive at the door of the house with the exact dose and quantity for the required time, while the surgeries will be a matter of a few hours outside the house and with short recovery periods. "To evaluate patients, a laser light 'will read' the organs. Your reading will be translated by a computer system and the results will be read by the doctor from anywhere. Genetics will take precedence in early diagnosis and even more in the prevention of chronic diseases and cancer. In addition, people will carry our medical records on a small chip that we will carry under the skin anywhere on the body ”.

The challenge for the future in this sense is to achieve the total incorporation of technology in clinics, hospitals and laboratories that today are alien to it due to the lack of economic resources and with which a significant number of daily lives would be saved, as well as that the care and well-being of all citizens would be improved.