With the healthcare industry currently facing a widespread shortage of professionals across many occupational positions, there’s a strong incentive to create technological solutions for the medical field’s growing number of logistical problems. However, there are no one-size-fits-all fixes that will take care of the need for more nurses, physicians, and clerical workers in hospitals and clinics around the world.
Each facility, organization, or practice will require a different innovative approach. Furthermore, every medical condition or medication carries its own set of facts and details to accommodate. Thus, the most important answers will come, not from premade inventions, but from custom or bespoke solutions that are tailored to the need of specific entities, processes, and products within the sector. With that said, here are four ways technology is helping to create bespoke solutions for the healthcare industry:
1. Custom Medical Device Manufacturing
Medical device manufacturing firms like Marshall are pioneering the principle of designing medical devices and surgical tools for enhanced manufacturability – allowing for improved cost-efficiency while also boosting the accuracy and usefulness of the finished device or tool. Such firms can provide bespoke process engineering services that can create, optimize, or completely revamp device design and manufacturing procedures.
2. Medical App Development
Many web designers and mobile app developers have begun specializing in the creation of medical apps. There’s an ongoing surge towards re-imagining the way healthcare works through the convenience and interconnectivity of mobile apps and devices. This movement is creating an entirely new economy for upcoming software engineers, while simultaneously solving many of the problems that are inherent in the conventional healthcare system.
3. Remote Care and Treatment Platforms
Of course, mobile apps aren’t the only kinds of communication and collaboration mediums that are helping patients and physicians, as a growing number of online platforms are appearing to help people connect with medical professionals of all kinds. The requirement to physically attend a facility is slowly becoming less common as many patients are using video chat technology to take care of appointments remotely. Nowadays, anyone can gain access to the assistance and services of medical professionals of all kinds – nutritionists, psychiatrists, physical therapists, etc. – from the comfort of their own home. Of course, this could eventually help to alleviate the in-person workload that hospitals and clinics face.
4. Custom Architectural Design
New hospitals and other medical facilities are built every day, and you’ve probably noticed that most of them have a unique design. While residential construction projects are often based on house plan templates, the designs of clinics, hospitals, and other commercial medical buildings are often created on a tailored basis in conjunction with architects to create unique and extravagant results. Today’s advancing 3D modeling and architectural software make it easier than ever for planners, investors, and other key figures to collaborate with architects in a meaningful manner.
Is Automation the Future of Healthcare?
As new apps and inventions continue to make things easier for everyone involved, one has to wonder whether these are all just baby steps towards a world where activities like diagnosis, case management, and patient-physician communication will all be handled between humans and automated software. While it isn’t likely that robotic arms will replace your local surgeon any time soon, there are certainly many positions and jobs in the healthcare industry that could be automated to improve efficiency and accuracy through the elimination of human error.