Infocomm and Medical Devices

Imagine this: You walk into a doctors office, a doctor you have never seen before. You begin to tell your doctor about your health history. All of a sudden he/she stops you, turns to the computer, presses some buttoms and Voila! Your whole health history is right there, on the screen. Every lab test, every infection, allergy, every MRI done...it is all there.

Can you imagine the potential benefits of this? Drastically reduced medical errors, amount of time saved, not having to call some obscure office to locate the patients' medical record (which must be processed and then will be sent over).

Such a system is becoming a reality now. A system where all medical facilities all over the country, heck, even all over the world, are linked. Every patients medical history, stored in a neat little folder on the computer, that can be accessed anywhere, at any time, by any physician, with just a press of a button.

Health IT is indeed promising. Yet, getting these systems to "talk" has been a bit difficult. With increasing competition from different IT companies, it is difficult to implement one single system throughout an entire network of healthcare providers. Yet, despite these challenges, it is important to pursue such a system, as the benefits are great.

Telemedicine is also another promising venture. Being able to talk to a doctor through the computer, instead of having to wait in an office, is very promising. Of course, this system does not offer the benefits of actually being able to see the patient in person, but can be used for follow-up assignments and the like.

But how to implement such a system for communities that do not use the computer frequently (such as the old and the poor)? An idea brought up in class was to educate community leaders on how to use the computer and webcam. These leaders can then spread the knowledge of this innovation to everyone in the community.

Indeed, we live in exciting times. It is up to us to harness the vast potential of technology to improve communities around the world.