"Assess how societal needs lead to scientific and technological developments related to internal systems."
Luke Skywalker's legacy continues below
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Hospitals rely on an increasing array of technology to improve patient care, diagnose disease, and improve efficiency. The technologies in hospitals today provide vast improvements over methods of diagnosing disease and creating efficiency based on previous generations. These technologies include tracking and diagnostic technologies, and emerging technologies that continue to advance the capabilities of modern medicine.
The use of infrared technology is quickly being integrated into hospitals and is growing fast. Examples of such technology are a badge equipped with sensors that correspond with sensors on the ceilings of hospitals in order to call upon employees if needed, and are also important when locating specific resources and accounting for supplies. Money is saved from these processes because of the convenience of keeping track of resources so to not lose money by losing chemicals or drugs. Time is saved because less time is spent searching for lost items and more is spent on productivity.
Computerized Tomography, more commonly known as CT scanners are used to produce cross sections and images of internal systems and their progress. The images that CT scans provide are more detailed than most x-rays and reveal crucial information about anatomy and internal structures and organs. This scan is important for locating the problems with bones, muscles, and tumors or other internal injuries of the body.
Emerging medical technologies include robotics, microtechnology, and nanotechnology and the promise that new medical advances will continue to be integrated into hospitals in the near future. RoboCourier is a delivery robot for hospitals designed and built with capabilities to distribute and collect patient samples throughout the hospital. Able to navigate on its own, RoboCourier eliminates the need for workers to transport medical carts around the hospital and gives them a chance to focus their attention on more important tasks, like treating patients!
Discoveries have been made concerning the likelihood of disease by looking at your genetic structure. This is a major advance in medicine and technology because it allows people to see into the body and base their plan of action accordingly and makes it easier to learn how to fix any internal problems. A recent study of men with prostate cancer found that diet and lifestyle changes could "switch off" some 453 cancer-promoting genes, while simultaneously "switching on" some 48 cancer-fighting genes.
Amazing improvements in prosthetics are making bionic limbs a reality, much like Geordi LaForge from Star Trek or Luke Skywalker’s arm from The Empire Strikes Back, this is well above the capacities of modern medicine. It gives people another chance at the things that they may not even have been born with; the goggles worn by Geordi LaForge are actually almost reality. Scientists have developed something called the Bionic Eye which allows one to see using different perceptions of dark and light through a plastic eye. Well I’ll just let you see
The Bionic Eye for yourself.
Medical imaging is a rather massive field that brought the discovery of the X-ray when it was accidentally created in 1895. Since then, the field has expanded, giving us Computed Tomography (CT scans), Positron Emission (PET scans), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs), and ultrasounds. What can you say that’s bad about medical imaging? Well there are some downsides, such as overexposure which eventually results in different cancers. Continuous exposure to X-rays causes higher risks of getting cancer but that is just one of the downsides to Information Technology and Medical Technology, the benefits outweigh the negatives.
In our modern society we are blessed with these incredible discoveries and innovations that ultimately make life easier for us and decrease the cost while increasing the efficiency of methods of implementation. Life is much more convenient when the methods of implementation are at their simplest. With these aspects of hospital technology and medical advancements, there are endless possibilities. I’m just glad that we live in this time when they are available to us and not far from home. New possibilities are now available and life has been made easier by these discoveries. It will only get better from here and the future of technology has yet to be stumped!
