Technology and healthcare often go hand-in-hand, which is why it’s crucial for doctors and healthcare practitioners and institutes to keep up with advances in technology. This is especially true in today’s dynamic world where new diseases are discovered on an almost daily basis.

All the way from radiotherapy to antibiotics, magnetic resonance imaging to even anesthetics, people all over the world have experienced the benefits of innovation in medical technology. Researchers have used their faith in innovation to build equipment—and their ability to save lives is remarkable. New healthcare technology startups and companies are also innovating by changing medical concepts through reproduction, recreation, and the creation of new products.

Innovation technology — What Is It?

Innovation technology includes a combination of activities dedicated to research, development, and the design of new products, services and techniques to improve certain aspect of healthcare, often utilizing new technology to enhance existing procedures.

Some prominent examples of innovation technology are:

• Regeneration of teeth using a fish found in Africa
• Ability to slow the signs of aging with the use of anti-aging drugs.
• Remote monitoring that allows doctors to diagnose and treat patients without actually visiting them.
• Providing state of art prosthetic limbs to amputees, especially for those who served in the military.
• Restoring vision for people with artificial retinas.
• Robotic nurses as assistants that help patients, especially when it comes to moving and lifting.
• Shaping the future through interoperability between health sectors by exchanging patient information.
• Tri-corder for diagnosing and collecting patient information and diseases.
• Light bulbs that can kill and disinfect bacteria.
• The innovation of electronic underpants to prevent bed sores, primarily for elderly patients.
• Long duration batteries for medical equipment using aluminum ion batteries, foam batteries etc.

While innovation technology has brought forth an extensive list of remarkable upgrades, it has also undergone a lot of failures. These failures often stem from poor communication between healthcare practitioners and patients, which is why it’s important to shed light on the matter, perhaps now more than ever.

Key points

Some of the most prominent points of the impact and failure of innovation technology are as follows:

– There’s often a clash between doctors and patients. The trouble begins when doctors give more prioritize the treatment of patients, rather than taking the time to learn about new technology.

– Manufacturers often set a high price for selling innovation technology to the ultimate customers: doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies. By using market skimming techniques they tend to oppose penetration, which often fails since customers try out unknown products for a lower price than more prominent forms of treatment.

– When physicians use technology to record patient data some of them are very reluctant to reveal it to the patients. Hence, a lack of trust and transparency occurs between the patient and doctors.

– Communication failures that occur when a doctor attempts to pass on technical information to uninformed or elderly patients who struggle to grasp the concept, especially when a doctor is untrained in simplifying and communicating that data.

As stated by Wesley Barker, MS, over one in three individuals are known to face gaps in the exchange of information, which points to a widening gap between doctor-patient communication.

The Importance of communication

Keep in mind that communication between a doctor and a patient is paramount to high-quality treatment. Although there are various barriers hindering the doctor-patient relationship, if either party withholds information it leads to a poor solution.

The behavior of both doctors and patients should be positive to make way for a smooth recovery. Treating a patient harshly could result in the loss of confidence in the doctor, which hinders the treatment plan. The is barrier can also be caused by the complication of communication within the doctor-nurse-patient circle. For example, if a nurse’s communication differs from what the doctor says, it can lead to an even larger barrier between the patient and doctor.

It’s unfortunate that these gaps between doctors and patient exist, and to some extent human nature makes it inevitable. However, with careful observation and analysis is can be reduced considerably.

Works Cited

Barker, W. (n.d.). Health it. Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/consumeraccessdatabrief_9_10_14.pdf

Health it. (2014, October). Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/rtc_adoption_and_exchange9302014.pdf