Smart health technology: How data can improve patient care
Smart health technology can play a big role in long-term health by providing data to improve patient care and outcomes.
MedTech is changing not just how we think about medicine, but also how medical professionals and industries can adapt to help patients with treatments that fit their schedules.
The visibility of people with conditions that compromise their immune systems has grown in recent years. Healthcare organizations and companies are catching up, offering tele-health and more robust patient portals. This trend toward patient-centered care has the potential to improve people’s lives, as well as create profitable new health technologies.
Wait, shouldn’t health care and money be separated for the good of the patient? It’s not that simple.
What is MedTech? Medical technology defined
MedTech stands for “medical technology” – also know as health technology – it is a combination of technology and medical interventions. MedTech is an extensive discipline that includes all of the technologies, devices, services, products, and solutions that use medical technology for patient care and treatment, diagnosis, monitoring, and improvement of people’s health.
When it comes to the healthcare industry, MedTech is used to connect patient care with technology.
Examples of MedTech solutions include:
- Equipment, tools, and devices used to diagnose and treat patients
- Medical devices used for diagnostics, in-vitro diagnostics (IVD), labs, and pharmaceuticals
The medical devices can be simple: think medical gloves, bandages, dental floss, thermometers, wheelchairs, etc.
Medical technology also includes sophisticated health tech, such as scanning machines like magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs), computed tomography scanners (CT scans), laser machines, and positron emission tomography (PET scans).
As our collective understanding of what people need expands, MedTech is perfectly positioned to improve quality of life and transform the future of medicine.
How can medical technology improve lives? The benefits of MedTech
MedTech has a vast amount of benefits that can address a range of pain points for individuals, healthcare providers, and payers.
Benefits of MedTech solutions include:
- Safety: Immunocompromised individuals do not have to risk public spaces
- Freedom: Medtech creates ways for care to be administered from a distance or by the patient themselves
- Outcomes: Concentrated delivery of drug treatments to laser surgery, medtech has improved outcomes
- Autonomy: Access to information and treatment allows individuals to be more in control
- Convenience: Certain injections cannot be ordered and prepared until a patient arrives, translating to long waits and unpredictable scheduling
- Employee satisfaction: Electronic medical records were just the tip of the iceberg in freeing providers from administrative tasks
The future of MedTech
The entry of capital, entrepreneurial drive, and problem-solving innovation creates the conditions for commerce and compassion to come together in cutting-edge medical technology.
The burgeoning industry of MedTech will not only transform people’s lives, it’s expected to contribute $15 trillion to the global health by 2030.
Enable Injections is a Cincinnati, Ohio-based organization whose mission is:
“Redefining drug delivery for the benefit of patients, providers, payers, and partners.”
CFO Tim Flaherty sat down with Sean Ellis and Ethan Garr for an episode of The Breakout Growth Podcast. The conversation covered some of the most powerful aspects of health technology and the impact it can have on people’s quality of life.
The regulatory road in MedTech can be long and winding – which is why it’s critical to have funding to complete the journey of taking a product from concept to solution.
Flaherty shared that Enable Injections is a med-tech hybrid with a commitment to people. Directing tech resources to medical innovations is an investment toward the success of the end product.
Listen to the full story here:
The idea of anywhere care
“Anywhere care,” puts the emphasis of invention on a solution that addresses both the diagnosis and the realities of a patient’s life.
Payers have long tried to shorten hospital stays, promoting home health care and rehab. Those were short-term solutions for what could or could not be a temporary condition.
When we think about chronic illness, if we consider life for those individuals outside of a hospital necessitating crisis, there’s more that can be done.
Imagine a patient being able to manage their own injections without ever having to touch a needle.
Enable Injections went beyond imagining something – they delivered wearable drug delivery solutions to market, providing a more convenient product so that patients can safely and effectively administer their injectable therapies.
Additional products, like a smart bandage using Bluetooth technology, involve remote communication allowing providers to monitor and interact with patients if intervention or modifications are needed.
Studies have shown that when medication can be administered at home, compliance increases, allowing the parameters of patient-provider relationships to stretch and adapt in mutually beneficial ways.
Medtech solutions combine innovation, commerce, and compassion by addressing patient and provider pain points with solutions that benefit both – and that’s where the future of health is headed.