Using Technology for Your Health
Episode #9 of the course How to live a healthy lifestyle by FutureLearn
With new technologies come new opportunities, and the medical and healthcare industries are in the midst of a revolution. From offering new ways to predict, prevent, detect, and treat illness to changing how and where medical care is delivered, new technology is changing the face of the medical world as we know it.
Self-help apps
There are thousands of apps designed for healthcare, from diabetes apps where people can log their daily glucose levels and fertility apps for couples trying to conceive to apps helping those with mental health issues track their daily mood. Apps not only empower us to take an active interest in our bodies and monitor our own well-being, they also provide useful records that doctors can use to track the development of medical conditions.
Online communities
Social media in the early millennium didn’t just bring us Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, it also brought us online healthcare communities where people can connect with similar people and share medical advice and stories. There are a number of websites across the world; medhelp.org and patientslikeme.com are popular global sites where people can discuss health concerns and find support from an online community.
Wearable technologies
With the development of wearable technologies—devices we can wear or place on our bodies—real-time medical data can now be monitored and collected remotely, preventing the need for patients to visit hospitals and doctors quite so frequently. To date, wearable tech devices have been developed to track blood pressure, stress levels, weight, and more, and medical teams in some hospitals are now testing how such devices can be rolled out on a larger scale, helping to save time, resources, and money.
Big data
Vast amounts of data from around the world are now being collected with the development of healthcare apps and wearable technology, and the belief is that this “big data” will not only offer new insight into global trends for disease but also track diseases in real time, which could ultimately aid infection control and save lives when it comes to outbreaks of disease.
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