Mr. Shuvankar Pramanick Gr. CIO, Paras Hospital

The advent of techno-healthcare, promises to improve and save countless lives all around the world. Techno-healthcare is a broad field where innovation plays a crucial role in sustaining health. Areas like biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and information technology along with the development of medical devices and equipment have made significant contributions to the healthcare industry. From development of adhesive bandages and ankle braces to complex more innovations like MRI machines, robotic prosthetic limbs and artificial organs, technology has made a remarkable impact on healthcare. Doctors are able to carry out better diagnosis, surgical procedures, and improved patient care due to technology. The change is palpable with the way doctors and patients interact with each other nowadays.

Mobility
With doctors and hospitals incorporating technology in their systems, more and more fuctions are carried out effortlessly and efficiently. Physicians have been given the gift of mobility. Doctors now have access to all kind of information required, be it drug information, research or studies, patient history or records and much more, within mere seconds. With the ability to effortlessly carry mobile devices around throughout the day, information is never too far from them. Devices that aid in identifying potential health threats and examining digital information like x-rays machines and CT scan machines also contribute to the benefits that information technology brings to healthcare.

Analytics
Predictive algorithms hold immense potential in solving some of the acute problems faced by the healthcare system and delivery in India. With this technological development, doctors are able to diagnose their patients more precisely. Analytics are being applied in other countries for diagnosis and the same technology can be adopted in India. This helps the doctors in discovery of a new source of data which helps them draw the complete picture about the diseases of the patients. This also makes possible the complete analysis of a medical problem like diabetes or any other problem and then find a revolutionary solution.

Digital
The push towards digitization augers well for the healthcare industry. Digitization is helping in conversion of patient records from paper driven to electronic storage systems. This is resulting in more efficient delivery of healthcare to the patients as their medical history and even treatment is no longer tied to one location and can be sent for reference and cross checking to any part of the world in no time. With Aadhar number linkage of the health records of the patients, there will be further simplification of the process of getting OPD appointments in hospitals. Patients need not stand in long queues and just need to mention their Aadhar numbers and forego the process of registration at hospital counters.

Patient Care
Another key area that has benefited from techno-healthcare is patient care. The use of information technology has made patient care much more reliable at hospitals. Nurses and doctors working at the frontline now regularly use hand-held computers to record important real-time patient data and then share it instantly within their updated medical history. It is an excellent contribution of technology to health care industry. Being able to store lab results and other crucial patient data at one centralized area has altered the level of care and efficiency a patient can expect to receive when they enter the hospital.

Medical Research
An improved level of efficacy in data collection means that an immense pool of patient history and case studies is now available to scientists online, who can easily study extensive patient case studies and make medical breakthroughs at a faster rate. Scientists and physicians are persistently conducting research and finding new procedures to prevent, diagnose and cure diseases in a more efficient way and develop new drugs and medicines that can reduce the symptoms or treat ailments in a quicker way.

Vaccines
Through the use of technology in medical research, scientists have also been able to study and examine diseases on a cellular level and produce vaccines against them. These antibodies against life-threatening diseases like malaria, polio, MMR, etc, prevent the onset of diseases and save millions of lives all around the planet. In fact, according to World Health Organization estimates, vaccines save about 3 million lives each year and prevent million others from contracting deadly viruses and diseases.