Researchers and biomedical engineers have developed techniques and technologies to fight off incurable diseases such as cancer and common reasons for death such as delivery of babies and heart attacks.
Modern technologies have reduced the pressure on doctors and patients by improving the broken medical system, rigid insurances policies and developing cost effective ways to tackle health problems. Medical practitioners and scientist has work through many difficulties to invent new techniques and provide excellent health care to the patients. Three major factors have changed the face of medical and health care:
Since the arrival of computers in health care system, the medical billing and coding has become more organised and precise because it has been switched from paper-based system to the computerised format. According to US' Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), every medical practitioner has to use computer software to generate and send out the electronic bills.
These electronic medical records have greatly benefitted the doctors and medical staff because they can access the patient's personal information, case history, previous opinions, prescriptions etc. with just one touch. This technology has helped the doctor to analyse thoroughly the patient's condition and figure out the possible illness in less time.
Another major advantage of this technology is that it helps in statistical documentation of the whole population, allowing doctors to figure out that how much and to what extent a disease has affected a population. It has also increased transparency in the health care system because it can be integrated with the reimbursement data, which means patients can get reimbursements easily, without paying numerous visits to accounts' departments or health insurance providers, which was common earlier.
This is the study of health and illness in a given population or groups. It was generally done during the epidemic outbreaks in the past but now this branch of science has revolutionised the medical field by teaming up with new technologies.
Now it is possible to analyse the death rate, life span and frequency of diseases throughout the health care system, by evaluating the electronic data of patients on a large scale, in a short time. This science allows the doctor to study diseases that are growing as an epidemic, such as cancer, heart disease and obesity, based on studies of a population rather than on an individual. It means medical researchers can find out what factors such as dietary or lifestyle practices are responsible for onset on any disease and then they can enhance their focus on it. This analysis helps in betterment of medical procedures all over the world.
With the advancement in technologies, many new pathogens and diseases have been identified and it is very difficult for a doctor to identify and treat every disease existing in the world. This problem has been sorted out with the introduction of evidence-based guidelines that allow medical professionals to identify the possible cause of symptoms and therefore prescribe best treatment for it. For example, doctors in Taiwan have instant access to patient's statistics on their computers so that they can provide the best care to their patients. Although, these guidelines may not have high success rate, they have made the diagnosis of diseases much easier.
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) is a medical classification list by the World Health Organization (WHO) and ICD-10 is its tenth revision. This classification allows the coding of diseases, its symptoms, external causes and unusual findings in the medical field. It includes 14 400 different codes along with sub classifications. It is provided over internet by WHO, which also offers ICD-10 training for doctors.
This tool is used to store and retrieve the diagnostic information of a disease and therefore it can be used to track the morbidity rate of a country.
To use this ICD-10 tool, hospital and clinics need to install new software and train and educate the medical staff to follow the guidelines in using this tool. Sufficient storage space and internet connectivity is also required for the online training programme. Many associations offer the instructions on this tool. To increase the efficacy of this tool, other arrangements such as patients' kiosks have been arranged in the hospitals and clinics.
