All the times I need to see a doctor I became with the clear notion that there is much room for improvement and innovation in healthcare. For a red mark on my skin, I had to lose half of my day and invest a lot of money to have a diagnosis, which is clearly too much for something that could be done in a more efficient way.
People diagnosis is quite complex. There are a huge number of possible diagnosis and many of them with the same symptoms, which makes de jib very difficult. How many of us went to 3 different doctors and came out with 3 different diagnosis? The diagnostic process has not changed too much in the last years and there is room for improvement with the recent technology.
Doctors certainly cannot remember all possible diagnosis and their symptoms. They are also unable to stay on top of hundreds of articles in new discoveries that increases the number of possible diagnosis. Computers with the powerful data analysis possible today can help doctors in their diagnosis but for that, a large, searchable and accessible healthcare database needs to be made and perhaps this is the main obstacle to the use of technology.
Healthcare has to start suing the powerful data analysis tools that exist today and are being used in other industries. The first stage of diagnosis and the treatment plan can be aided by technology.
The big number of wearables that we use today, as fitness trackers, are powerful tools for a body condition evaluation. These tools have passed the recreational area, getting into more “serious” uses, such as sleep monitoring, EEG at home, continuous ECG, breathing and temperature control.
It’s easy to see that this information with a powerful database can be much efficient and accurate in diagnosis. For example, many people don’t know if they have heart conditions because they never had any problem but with this technology we can detect the problems and do preventive plan to prevent future problems.
Doctor work goes beyond diagnosis and treatment or prevention plan but it’s also true that there is much room for improvement. Technology besides helping people take care of themselves, as it helped in the creation of healthier lifestyles, will also leverage doctor skills which result in a better service for patients.