Ever since the discovery of fire by ancient humans, technology has been continually evolving. That evolution continues to this day. However, while the technological developments of hundreds of years ago were a much more gradual process of continual progress, today the progress is occurring in leaps and bounds that are certain to transform society much faster than the discoveries of the past.
Of these new technological developments, perhaps the most important regards healthcare technology. With new and improved healthcare tech, the lives of patients are sure to improve and lengthen greatly. With that benefit for patients, the stock market is also certain to see transformations as new technologies raise the profile of new companies and public offerings. With that in mind, below are some of the ways healthcare tech will bring about this profound change.
Robotic Surgeons
One of the sources for some of the biggest innovations in healthcare that will soon be upon us will be the wider application of robots. Robots are poised to transform a number of different industries in which human beings will be replaced by automated machines that can perform the same kind of work. While we usually associate automation with things like manufacturing and shipping, automation will soon impact the healthcare industry as well.
Surgery requires the steady hand of surgeons with years of training to pull off successfully. Despite the skill of surgeons, human error is still a possibility. When the stakes are high, those errors can result in death.
However, in the near future, many routine as well as highly complex surgeries may be completed by robots. In fact, this transition is already taking place. A robot manufactured by Intuitive Surgical was able to perform a soft tissue surgery with more precision than a human being could.
Nanobots
While you are probably very familiar with the term robot, you may not be as familiar with the nanobot. A nanobot is a robot or other autonomous machine that is built on a very miniature scale. In specific, nanobots are usually thought of as being less than 10 micrometers in size. How big is a micrometer? A micrometer is one thousand times smaller than one millimeter. This is a size smaller than what can be seen with the human eye.
As technology moves towards the creation of more advanced nanobots and nanomachines, the benefit for patients is clear. In fact Bar-Ilan University in Israel has already begun trial tests for using nanobots as a strategy for fighting cancer. These nanobots are built to detect cancer cells in the human body and apply treatment directly to them. It is hoped this means of treating cancer will be more successful and result in far less debilitating side effects than chemotherapy.
Picture Archiving and Communication Systems
Another significant development has been the introduction of new and improved PACS. PACS is an acronym that stands for Picture Archive and Communication System. A PACS system is what a healthcare enterprise like a hospital uses to create and manage medical imagery. This includes things like X-Rays, MRIs, CAT scans, ultrasounds and more.
In the past, such medical images existed as physical film. They had to be stored in huge bulky filing cabinets. Simply retrieving them for use by medical professionals was a chore in itself. Transferring them to doctors in other locations was even more difficult and required fax machines or the US Postal Service. Today, PACS is much more high tech and creates medical images as extremely high resolution image files. These files can be distributed almost immediately through the use of cloud networks. This makes such medical images more readily available to medical professionals when they need them.
Technology is evolving at a pace unseen before. As medical technology improves, so will the lives of patients all over the world. The healthcare industry is changing, and companies and the stock market will have to adjust accordingly.
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