1.1. 3D printing in the medical field can present a myraid of opportunities for patient care and health related outcomes. Most notably, printing organs and printing medications. This technology is beneficial as it creates two major benefits: customization and democratization. The custimization of organs, like hearts for children and bones for replacement and repair, can dramatically increase success and reduce costs and wait times for organ donation. The democratization of the 3D printing community allows for development and research to be spread out over the entire community, reducing costs and burdens dramatically. (Ventola C. L., 2014)
2. 2nd Technology for patient care: BioElectronics
2.1. The use of microscopic devices to deliver medicine, track health status, and deliver other types of care is fast at hand. A medication taken orally may target the site of the issue, but i also dispersed systemically at worst, and to a larger local area at best. With new technologies, more targeted areas are possible. Wearable, or injectible or implanted, technologies already help to monitor heart rates and blood sugar levels. Devices used to measure things like nerve conduction to individual neurons as well as deliver treatment to that site are advancements coming in the near future. (Jonsson, A; Song, Z; Nilsson, D; et al, 2015)
3. References:
4. 1st technology: Remote Patient Management
4.1. The technology of remote patient management is a corner of telemedicine. The purpose is to be able to access patients and direct patient care over distance, removing distance, time, and cost as barriers for both patients and providers. The Veterans Health Administration has been played a major role in the push for this technology (and even has commercials that play on tv discussing it). On top of collecting and transmitting data from health care devices like blood pressure cuffs and glucometers, the tech allows for face to face health care check ups with providers and nurses. (Coye, Haslekorn, and DeMello, 2009)
5.1. By using a workforce management technology, hospital groups like Catholic Health Initiatives, and hospitals like Midland Memorial in Texas have combined EHR's with admissions, discharge, and transfers, as well as including real time coding and connecting HR departments to allow for real time adequate and accurate measurement of a patients needs, so that staffing can be adjusted in real time and predicted in the future. How this helps is by allowing floors to staff correctly for the patient acuity and volume. This keeps the patients safe, the staff safe (and sane), and allows for budget appropriation accordingly, reducing cost and limiting staffing waste. ("Using technology to make evidence-based staffing assignments", 2013)
