medicine & technology

[UCLApwns]

So i've heard for quite some time that medicine is lagging behind other fields in terms of innovations and technology. Some could go as far back as a century ago. What are your thoughts on this? What can we do to change this?

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[narretgrez]

EMR will be a big thing in the next 10 years. Start investing.

 

[Karen12345]

more technologically advanced doesn't necessarily mean better

 

[Dendrite]

While technology is very important, I want to be one of those physicians who does not have to rely on technology to make diagnoses. I want to be able to confidently trust my instincts, while using technology to reinforce my knowledge.

 

[lllasd]

what is medicine without technology? in most cases physicians rely on technology to make diagnoses - how else could you find an internal tumor or an aneurysm? technology also allows for more advanced treatments and surgeries. Whether the benefit from a particular technology outweighs the cost is a concern, but as long as the technology is legitimate and used appropriately, it will improve medicine.

 

[Dendrite]

what is medicine without technology? in most cases physicians rely on technology to make diagnoses - how else could you find an internal tumor or an aneurysm? technology also allows for more advanced treatments and surgeries. Whether the benefit from a particular technology outweighs the cost is a concern, but as long as the technology is legitimate and used appropriately, it will improve medicine.

I was referring more to international medicine where infectious disease is rampant and technology isn't all too prevalent.

 

[narretgrez]

computers will eventually take over the physician's roles. all that rote memorization could be easily stored into a database. clever algorithms like neural networks and genetic algorithms can map the symptoms to a diagnosis.

in our careers, i'm guessing we'll never get a glimpse of it. but never say never. just think of the evolution of the internet in the last ten years. astounding. a person going into medical school 2001 wouldn't never have imagined youtube to be possible.

 

[neuroprotector]

computers will eventually take over the physician's roles. all that rote memorization could be easily stored into a database. clever algorithms like neural networks and genetic algorithms can map the symptoms to a diagnosis.

I disagree. Although some of the first artificial intelligence systems were medical in nature, and several very complex diagnosis programs are on the market, it would take quite a bit of engineering to get a machine that can accurately elicit deep tendon reflexes, interpret histories from a variety of patients, recognize subtleties in symptoms, or even take note of very obvious diagnostic considerations (if they're not being told to look for them). That's just a few. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it'll be a long time before we're downsized from automation.

That said, no career is static, and physicians and surgeons are changing as much as anyone else. If anything, allied fields will encroach on traditional doctor "territory" before a computer would.

 

[nybrian]

What companies that are selling and/or manufacturing emr's can i invest in? Which one is the best?

 

[Isoprop]

insurance companies are hesitant to reimburse precedures that use the bleeding edge in technology.

 

[neuroprotector]

What companies that are selling and/or manufacturing emr's can i invest in? Which one is the best?

GE Healthcare and Epic Systems are really big in that, but frankly, I'm not sure there's going to be a legendary run on EMR software the way there was on the internet. Hospitals are all run differently, and implementation of the software comes always to the chagrin of anyone working there. Many hospitals already have their own EMRs that work fine. The real task of these companies is going to be finding a way to integrate with the existing infrastructure of every hospital. Until then, the kind of system needed for an outpatient nephrology clinic will be totally different from the kind needed by a research university nephrology ward.

 

[Jpc984]

You also have to figure in the costs of the technology on the patients. Insurance companies (sometimes) do not cover the experimental technology/procedures. So, physicians may be less likely to use them because the patients cannot afford them.