Technology has drastically altered our perceptions of the world and the people that inhabit it in the last 10 years. Medtech is one of the industries that has thrived as technology has advanced. The more science advances, the more optimistic people will be about achieving an accurate diagnosis and far less difficult treatments in a short amount of time.
- Fast Diagnosis -
Technology has discovered a means to look far beyond what is visible on the surface. We have the Genome test, which is essentially genetic information testing. Many more tests are being developed or have shown to be useful in making diagnoses. Few of them are
- Proteome: A medical test that involves a collection of proteins produced by a live species, system, or biological environment.
- Clinical Imagery: CT Scan, MRI, and Ultrasound are excellent examples of clinical imagery.
- Nano Nose: analyses the gases in the breath and detects those that indicate the existence of lung cancer.
Infections like influenza or H1N1 may be diagnosed at home by spitting your sputum into a tube and having it analysed at home.
- Diagnosis Using Smart Phones and Other Gadgets -
People no longer need to visit a doctor's office for a diagnosis. You may make the diagnosis using applications on your phone or tiny gadgets like the Oxy-meter, which can be used to monitor the oxygen levels and heartbeat by just sliding it over your finger. Or a gluco-meter, which is a gadget that measures the amount of sugar in the blood.
In fact, physicians may use applications on their phones that may be connected to another device and provide you with a diagnosis. Such as a gadget used by an ENT to examine a patient's ears, nose, or throat, which may now be hooked to a smart phone.
Every day, a new piece of medtech is invented to make our lives easier and to provide us with a diagnosis or cure in a short amount of time.
- Exercising and Healthy Diet -
We all know that in order to be healthy, we must eat well and exercise often. There are new wireless-enabled gadgets on the market, such as a smart watch, which not only tracks what we eat and how many steps we take, but also monitors and computes our heart rate. While some gadgets or applications assist us in calculating the number of calories we have burned, others just assist us in determining the number of calories we are about to ingest with the food we eat. Knowing if you are accomplishing enough of what is expected of you may have a significant influence over your well-being.
- Early Diagnosis -
A radioactive brain scan, for example, can identify disorders like Alzheimer's or other diseases 10 years in advance, encouraging us to be more vigilant.
- Health Care Visits and Online Consultation -
An app can be used to schedule a doctor's appointment. Consultations with doctors can also be scheduled online. For example, suppose you have a little lump on your neck and are unsure if you should visit a doctor about it. In this situation, you could submit a photo to a doctor, who will determine whether you need to make an appointment and come in, or you may treat it yourself.
This saves you the time you would have spent waiting in line at the doctor's office. This was especially useful during prolonged epidemics and the pandemic, when individuals were advised not to leave their houses unless it was absolutely essential. People who cannot go back and forth between hospitals can now reap the benefits of consultative health care and consult doctors right from the comfort of their homes.
- 3D Printing -
3D printing prostheses, bones, and joints based on the anatomy of the patient Organs and blood vessels can also be 3D printed. 3D printing is becoming increasingly popular, but it is also quite expensive and time consuming, since it takes at least 24 hours for a 3D printer to print out an object.
- Cons of Medtech- The benefits of rising popularity of medtech are listed above. However, a variety of challenges may occur as a result of this progression.
- Cost - One of the most significant side effects of evolving medtech is the high expense of operations that may require 3D printing of bones, robotic surgery, or advanced gear.
- Wrong Diagnoses - Technical machinery sometimes stops working accurately as problems may arise in them due to various reasons which may potentially endanger the patient's life. They may be incorrect as a result of a lack of data about the individual being diagnosed.
- Laser Surgeries - Laser procedures pose a large level of danger, and the extra radiation generated by them is not good for the person being treated.
- Medtech That Are in Development -
- Psychologist with artificial intelligence: A digital therapist.
- Very Small Pacemakers: for the heart, brain, or even as a kind of birth control implant that may be switched on and off as needed.
