Hospitals rely on an increasing array of technology to improve patient care, diagnose disease, and improve efficiency. The technologies in hospitals today provide vast improvements over methods of diagnosing disease and creating efficiency used in previous generations. These technologies include tracking and diagnostic technologies, and emerging technologies that continue advance the capabilities of modern medicine.
Infrared
Infrared technology integrated into hospitals assists in tracking personnel and supplies within the hospital. According to the John Hopkins Children's Center website, infrared technologies allows a hospital to track staff through an infrared badge detected by ceiling sensors. In the event that a patient's is needed, they are located using infrared technology. In addition to locating individuals, hospitals employ tracking technologies to locate and account for supplies.
Bar-Coding
Bar-coding technologies in hospitals allow the tracking of medications. The John Hopkins website attributes the use of bar-coding technologies to decreased costs from lost medications and an increase in productivity as less time is spent locating supplies. The technology John Hopkins employs allows detection of possible drug interactions in patients and assists in the prevention of dosing errors.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology allows caregivers to diagnose disease using visual cross-sections of the human body. The Mayo Clinic website states that MRI technology uses a magnetic field to realign water molecules within the human body and radio waves to create a signal that the MRI machine turns into cross-sectional images. Combining these images produces a 3-D image that can be viewed from various angles to diagnose diseases throughout the human body.
Positron Emission Tomography
Positron emission tomography (PET) measures abnormal cell activity on a molecular level. Used to diagnose cancer, brain disorders, and heart disease, PET scans use radioactive material introduced into the body to monitor cellular activity. The Mayo Clinic states that radioactive material accumulates in areas of higher levels of chemical activity corresponding to areas of disease within the tissue. According to the PETNET solution website, PET scans are used in conjunction with CT scans to accurately define these types of diseases.
Computerized Tomography
Computerized Tomography (CT) scanners use a rotating x-ray machine and a powerful computer program to create cross-sectional images. The images that CT scans provide are more detailed than traditional x-rays, revealing detailed anatomy and the internal structure of bones and organs. The CT scan is useful in diagnosing disorders of the bone or muscles, locating tumors, and detecting internal injuries.
Emerging Medical Technologies
Emerging medical technologies include advances in robotics, microtechnology, and nanotechnology and promise that new medical advances will continue to be part of hospitals of the future. One such advance, named RoboCourier, is a delivery robot for hospitals. Designed and built by Mopec and CCS Robotics, RoboCourier is a robot designed to distribute and collect patient samples throughout a hospital. Capable of autonomous navigation, RoboCourier relieves the need for trained medical professionals to push medical carts aroundm allowing medical staff to focus on more important tasks.
Tags: human body, John Hopkins, Computerized Tomography, cross-sectional images, diagnose disease, Mayo Clinic, radioactive material
