Tag: Technological innovation

Senior Care and Technology

Hitting into an approximated $7 billion baby boomer spending potential, big businesses are focusing on technological innovation as it pertains to senior care and aging in place, writes USA Today. That technological innovation varies from supporting or changing the diminishing number of care providers comparative to those who depend on them, to distribution of medicine and smart houses that are prepared with receptors and other tracking devices and they are focusing on the aging inhabitants in groups.

Increasingly seen as a safety net for older parents and family members, electronic receptors and other home-based gadgets are giving satisfaction to family members of the aging inhabitants. This “technological trend of international significance” is offering alternatives from medicine management to safety and interaction and is increasing the ability for senior citizens in America to age in their houses. “Imagine bottle caps that shine when it’s time to take medicine, seats that take your vital signs and even carpeting that evaluate walking styles and predict physical damage and psychological infirmity. All are here or coming soon and will be a benefit to the country’s 78 million Baby Boomers, those born from 1946 to 1964, who are experiencing the possibilities of getting old with a reducing population of care providers.”

The technological innovation benefits those who use it, as well as the community in general, as a care provider shortage is approximated to match with the population of child boomers reaching their 70s and 80s. But difficulties are plentiful, too, with different gadgets and technological innovation current on a single platform, as well as the worry associated with tracking people in their houses, the article notes. Medical care and aging technology for senior care, however, is a big business and those who are creating alternatives now are on the cutting edge of what will amount to a large pattern later on. That includes technical leaders from Intel-GE to Qualcomm and many others that are in the field currently, or have programs to get into in the near term.

Humanities Problems

What can we do to make the case for the humanities? Compared with the STEM professions (science, technological innovation, engineering and mathematics), they do not, on the surface, contribute to the nationwide protection. It is challenging to evaluate accurately, their impact on the GDP, or our employment rates or the stock market. And yet, we know in our bones that luxurious humanism is one of the biggest resources of durability we have as a nation and that we must secure the humanities if we are to maintain that durability in the millennium forward. When you ask economic experts to chime in on a problem, the odds are great that we will eventually get around to a primary question: “Is it worth it?” Assistance for the humanities is more than worth it. It is important.

We all know that there has been a reasonable quantity of anger to this concept lately in the Congress and in State Houses around the nation. Sometimes, it almost seems as if there is a National Alliance against the Humanities. There are regular potshots by radio experts and calling to decrease federal funding in education and scholarship in the humanities. It has become stylish to attack the government for being out of contact, swollen, and elitist; and humanities financing often strikes experts as an especially muddle-headed way of federal funding. Because of this, the humanities are in risk of becoming even more of a punching bag than they already are.

In the present economy, these strikes have the potential to move individuals. Any expenses have to be clearly worth it. “Performance funding” hyperlinks federal support to professions that offer high number of jobs. Or, as in a Florida proposal that appeared last year, a “strategic” educational costs framework would basically cost more cash to learners who want to study the humanities and less cash for those going into the STEM professions. As an outcome, there is severe cause for problem. Government support for the humanities is going in the incorrect route. In the fiscal year 2013, the National Endowment for the Humanities was financed at $139 million, down $28.5 million from FY 2010, at some point when science financing remained mostly unchanged. This is part of a design of long-term decrease since the Reagan years.

Effects of Technology on Patient Care

Technological innovation has become an important part of the nursing career and patient care. However, in many circumstances, it has also become an annoying one. Take, for example, electronic medical records (EMR). As more and more hospitals turn from paper charts to EMRs to get to know a patient’s history, medical staffs have to evolve to this new, technologically-driven method of charting. Yet, many nurses do not get sufficient training and education, making them exacerbated of know-how and not really prepared to use it successfully. The truth is that, with the right knowledge and the right resources, nurses can use technology to improve patient results in patient care and their own professions. Here are some illustrations of how you can use technology to your advantage:

It provides straightforward access to patient information. – When nurses think about EMR systems, they often concentrate on the disadvantages, such as the plenty of screens to check and the limitless displays they have to surf through. However, EMRs really can save your time by offering accessibility patient lab results, history, physical information and notes all in one location. Obtaining this data via paper charts could take hours, but with an EMR, it’s all at your convenience.

It helps provide precise medicines. – Every health professional knows about the five privileges of medication management. However, many nurses also know first-hand how challenging it can be to document each step on paper. Luckily, with EMRs, precise medication information is always available and up-dates can be recorded with convenience. You can also quickly access allergic reaction backgrounds and medication information and see how the medication will communicate with other medicines. As a result, you can ensure that the right medication is going to the right sufferers.

It enables you to research illnesses and diseases. – Every day, you care for sufferers being affected by an ever-changing variety of conditions. It’s challenging, if not difficult, to know everything about every illness process. However, it is simple to learn. Internet sources such as UpToDate.com, an evidence-based, physician-authored medical data source, can give you information you need to cure diseases that you don’t regularly experience.

Patient Care and Technology

Today, suppliers can no longer go to work with a stethoscope and their well-trained mind and hands. In a medical center or a workplace, few of us need a black leather bag. But we do need information, and in methods we never experienced in our training. Technological innovation is fast changing how we approach patient care. Decision support tools are still in their beginnings. Within a very short time, I believe we will be using technology to help us improve the patient care methods we have not yet fully considered. There are two dimensions of technology that I believe will considerably improve patient care and the connection with our sufferers.

First, bedroom diagnostics, ultrasound evaluation has quickly become the standard of proper care for experts to place lines. Now, convenient ultrasound is available for the bedside physical evaluation. Most doctors currently usually spend most of their time on worldwide medical volunteer missions. They have a convenient ultrasound that is only a little bit larger than the normal smartphone. The sensor / probe looks like a tiny flash light. In towns in remote Nepal, they are able to ultrasound sufferers to help identify serious diseases that may require transportation to tertiary care organizations. As internet and mobile cell phone availability enhances throughout the world, there are places where they can deliver the pictures to radiologists in the United States to assist with decoding and making an analysis. I think the normal doctor in western world will soon carry a pocket ultrasound for use throughout the day, whether hospital or office-based.

Second are the incredible opportunities to use mobile phone technology to enhance the care of chronic diseases. The concept of “crowd sourcing” allows sufferers and their providers to share information that can considerably improve chronic illness. Ninety-one percent of people keep their smartphone within 3 feet of them 24 hours a day. An early experiment in patient care with inflammatory bowel illness has produced impressive improvements in the illness by tracking individuals’ activities through their mobile cell phone GPS and accelerometer and responses to scheduled text messages.