Devices

With the growth of telehealth, the remote care technology market has boomed as people begin to demand – and doctors begin to see the benefits of – more patient involvement in their care.

Remote care technology has been touted as an essential part of the digital healthcare revolution and I agree that they complete the ecosystem within which patient care becomes the focus. It allows patients to keep track of their health and recovery and doctors to track patients’ progress or provide convalescent care away from a healthcare facility.

We’ve always heard about how important it is to have a good night’s sleep to allow the body, especially our brain, to rest. Sleep has a lot to do with how healthy we are.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Good quality sleep is essential for good health and well-being. However, lifestyle and environmental factors are increasingly causing difficulties in sleeping. Sleep disturbance is frequently considered the most serious consequence of environmental noise.

Implantable devices are not a new concept in healthcare. For decades, people have been kept alive by devices like pacemakers that assist the heart to function, for example, and orthopaedic devices that assist in fusing bones and joints displaced through injury. However, recent developments in the technology sphere have led to the increase and improvement in the types of implantable devices available in healthcare and generally.

BIOMARKERS HAVE long been used in healthcare as a diagnostic and treatment aid. In addition, biomarkers such as those used to determine the probability of disease presence or development based on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) have been used as a means of taking preventive action, by predicting disease progression and possible response to treatment. In this way, a treatment model can be developed for the patient even before symptoms begin.

Earlier this year, I wrote an article about computer vision and how it can positively impact healthcare.

This kind of artificial intelligence (AI) is already a feature of health technology and is used to aid in diagnosis and treatment. AI research in health has been happening for years with spinal stimulation and brain computer interface.

Last week, I attended the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, which showcases the best of breed in health and supporting technology.

New, improved and emerging technology was on show and it was good to know that my vision for health technology is safely imbued in what is out there to support it.

There were hundreds of booths and I strategically made my way around those I thought could bring the most value to what we are doing, and plan to do, in Jamaica.