Technology has made its place in most if not all of the world, including health care. There have been so many new apps built to help your and your health. A quick search on the android market with "health" gives the following top 5 app results:
and so many more. The Apple Store has several other fantastic applications that one can use for health. Some apps help you measure your fitness level, some your heart rate, some help you weight control, some help you with diagnosis. Not only mobile technology but the internet itself provides answers to many questions. How often is it that a person, instead of visiting their family doctor Googles their symptoms and diagnoses themselves.
"In a 2010 CBC survey, 41 percent of Canadian adults polled said they consult online sites for information about a specific disease, medical issue or health product. And 67 percent of the time, they trust the information they're getting."[1]. These numbers are very large, and require serious consideration.
Relying on the internet is not necessarily a negative thing in terms of healthcare. What is dangerous is if one cannot differentiate between what is true and what isn't. Sometimes many diseases have the same symptoms but different treatments, and it requires at least some medical knowledge to decide on which one it is.
In the article referred to above, an excellent example of how internet can help is given. A mother of a very sick child has been trying, with several doctors to diagnose her daughter's disease. The mother is somewhat knowledgeable in medical language, thus is capable of differentiating between what is true and what isn't. She comes across a rare condition that matched her daughters symptoms. She forwarded it to the doctors, and now the doctors are looking into the situation.
I would say the internet, and all the mobile applications for healthcare are very useful, however only to a certain extent. Applications and websites that are by credited medical organizations can be trusted, however information on discussion boards and other places where the general public participates should be taken with a grain of salt.
Maybe there will be a time when we can use machines to diagnose our problems and not worry about them being wrong, but that time hasn't come yet. When it does, imagine how it would benefit third world countries, and soldiers at war.
Although we are not there yet, we do have awesome tools that help doctors, and us a lot in terms of health. Here is a very interesting article on some of the latest life saving technologies. There is one iPad app, that can assess blood flow by color change in the face and breathing by the rising and falling of the chest, it can also send this information to emergency medical professionals!
Cannot help but wonder at how fast technology has developed, that now it can help save so many lives.
and so many more. The Apple Store has several other fantastic applications that one can use for health. Some apps help you measure your fitness level, some your heart rate, some help you weight control, some help you with diagnosis. Not only mobile technology but the internet itself provides answers to many questions. How often is it that a person, instead of visiting their family doctor Googles their symptoms and diagnoses themselves.
"In a 2010 CBC survey, 41 percent of Canadian adults polled said they consult online sites for information about a specific disease, medical issue or health product. And 67 percent of the time, they trust the information they're getting."[1]. These numbers are very large, and require serious consideration.
Relying on the internet is not necessarily a negative thing in terms of healthcare. What is dangerous is if one cannot differentiate between what is true and what isn't. Sometimes many diseases have the same symptoms but different treatments, and it requires at least some medical knowledge to decide on which one it is.
In the article referred to above, an excellent example of how internet can help is given. A mother of a very sick child has been trying, with several doctors to diagnose her daughter's disease. The mother is somewhat knowledgeable in medical language, thus is capable of differentiating between what is true and what isn't. She comes across a rare condition that matched her daughters symptoms. She forwarded it to the doctors, and now the doctors are looking into the situation.
I would say the internet, and all the mobile applications for healthcare are very useful, however only to a certain extent. Applications and websites that are by credited medical organizations can be trusted, however information on discussion boards and other places where the general public participates should be taken with a grain of salt.
Maybe there will be a time when we can use machines to diagnose our problems and not worry about them being wrong, but that time hasn't come yet. When it does, imagine how it would benefit third world countries, and soldiers at war.
Although we are not there yet, we do have awesome tools that help doctors, and us a lot in terms of health. Here is a very interesting article on some of the latest life saving technologies. There is one iPad app, that can assess blood flow by color change in the face and breathing by the rising and falling of the chest, it can also send this information to emergency medical professionals!
Cannot help but wonder at how fast technology has developed, that now it can help save so many lives.
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