There are so many areas of our lives where technology is becoming ever more important. For most people their health is pretty high up on priorities so let’s have a look at how health and technology are moving on together. Did you know that there is such a thing as robotic surgery? Using robots surgery can be done remotely (over the internet!) in a minimally invasive way and essentially unmanned. Some of the theoretical advantages are that the incisions are smaller, the movements more precise and therefore there is less risk of bleeding and quicker recovery times. And this isn’t just science fiction – in 2006 an Italian 34 year old man had a heart procedure to ameliorate an abnormal heart rhythm by a surgeon in Boston, USA.

On a slightly different note there is a huge growth in the industry of what is called telemedicine. This is where clinical medicine takes place by the transfer of information over an interactive audiovisual platform. If you think about the Australian Outback where the average person is just unable to access healthcare, particularly specialist care, you can immediately see it’s usefulness. By employing satellite technology and videoconferencing technology a real-life and real-time medical consultation can occur between a patient at Ayers Rock and Central Sydney. This is also very time and cost efficient from the medical specialist’s point of view as there no longer the need to travel vast distances around the country – both saving money, and improving peoples access to quality healthcare.

Another fast growing are is telemonitoring – whereby a patient for example wears a blood pressure cuff and all recordings are sent directly to their GP, the same could be done for blood glucose measurements done at home in diabetic patients.

This is rapidly developing area in IT – so watch this space… and next time you visit your doctor, see how technology is helping you!