One of the technologies I find most useful is Electronic Health Records (EHR). EHR’s have enabled nurses and other healthcare providers to catalogue care given to patients and have access to information that has the potential to prioritize care(Menachemi&Collum, 2011). Furthermore, this information is easily accessible by care providers including physicians, nurses and sometimes even patients. I find EHRs particularly beneficial because nurses can use them to see where a patient’s intervention has reached, monitor small changes in patient conditions and to get real-time information in the form of reminders or alerts(Alotaibi & Federico, 2017). Instantaneous health updates affect the accuracy and speed of medical care and can be streamlined to ensure better patient outcomes.

EHR’s just like other technology has room for improvement. One of the ways I think they could be enhanced is to incorporate artificial intelligence such as virtual assistants in the future. Virtual assistants could help reduce workflow burdens for healthcare providers by for example automating data-entry tasks(Brooke, 2021). For patients, a good improvement would be being able to access their health information from their smartphones and the capacity to integrate information from different smart devices and providers, and update automatically. Additionally, adding a voice recognition capacity to EHR’s would help deliver care more efficiently(Kumah-Crystal et al., 2018).

My dream technology in healthcare is a hand-held device that has the ability to scan patient armbands and medication and also be able to download health information from other smart devices just by placing them in contact with each over for seconds. In addition, the device should have unlimited storage memory, long-lasting battery usage and high portability to allow nurses to carry them anywhere they go. It also needs to be affordable so that most providers have enough of them in order to have considerable impact on patient care and patient safety(Al-Ghamdi, 2018).

References

Al-Ghamdi, S. (2018). Popularity and impact of using smart devices in medicine: experiences in Saudi Arabia. BMC Public Health, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5465-y

Alotaibi, Y., & Federico, F. (2017). The impact of health information technology on patient safety. Saudi Medical Journal, 38(12), 1173-1180. https://doi.org/10.15537/smj.2017.12.20631

Brooke, S. (2021). Why healthcare providers need automated data capture | Articles | Chief Innovation Officer. Channels.theinnovationenterprise.com. Retrieved 13 April 2021, from https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/why-healthcare-providers-need-automated-data-capture.

Kumah-Crystal, Y., Pirtle, C., Whyte, H., Goode, E., Anders, S., & Lehmann, C. (2018). Electronic Health Record Interactions through Voice: A Review. Applied Clinical Informatics, 09(03), 541-552. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0038-1666844

Menachemi, N., &Collum, T. (2011). Benefits and drawbacks of electronic health record systems. Risk Management And Healthcare Policy, 4, 47-55. https://doi.org/10.2147/rmhp.s12985