Advantages and Disadvantages of Medical Technology in Healthcare

Advantages and Disadvantages of Medical Technology in Healthcare I want to discuss some of the advantages and also the disadvantages of medical technology. How modern technology has good and bad effects on our lives. The advantages of medical technology are given below. Advantages of Medical Technology First, I would like to explain the advantages of medical technology one by one. 1. Communication Systems in Healthcare Hospitals There is a lot of devices made for the patients contacting the doctors or nurse. These kinds of digital devices are made for patients who are placed in the patient’s rooms or wards in hospitals. In case of emergency, the patients can click the button of these devices. It informs the doctors or nurses on time to come for the patient. This is one of the main advantages of technology for patients and doctors. With this kind of device, without wasting time the doctor can reach the patients and save their lives. 2. Technology Improving Healthcare in Hospitals There is a lot of technological devices and equipment which improved the healthcare or treatment of the patients. The portable defibrillator, drug management technology, MR system, electronic IV monitors are the new technological devices that improved the healthcare of the patients. 3. Electronic Health Records of Patients in Hospitals The patient’s health records are now stored in computers. Mostly In the hospitals or also with the specialists the complete health records of patients are stored on a computer. The patient’s health records are stored in the database or on the cloud servers. keeping records in the computerized system is faster than the paper works. It takes less time instead of paper records. Disadvantages of Medical Technology The disadvantages of medical technology for people are given below: 1. Increased Cost of the Treatment for the Patients The increased cost of treatment is also one of the disadvantages of medical technology. Mostly all the treatments and surgeries through technology are very costly, like robotic surgery, and other kinds of technological machinery surgeries are very costly. And most of the patients are belong to rural areas and they are poor. For poor patients, it’s impossible to pay for costly surgeries. Technology increased health care but also increased the cost of that. Which is impossible for the patients to pay. 2. Show the Wrong Result of the Patients Condition One of the cons of medical technology is sometimes the machinery or technological devices show the wrong result. Sometimes it didn’t show the accurate result of the patients to the doctor. The technological machines are made by engineers and programmers. Sometimes the errors and bugs come into it. Then it didn’t work properly. If it shows the wrong result and the doctor gives the wrong diagnosis to the patients then it takes the patient’s life into danger. This is one of the most dangerous cons of medical technology for the patients 3. Lack of Information of the Patients Lack of information is also a disadvantage of medical technology. Safety and privacy are some of the laws of hospitals.to protect the patient’s privacy. But by technology, this law can be a break. The information of the patients which are stores in the computer database of the hospitals can be a leak. The computer systems can be a hack and the secret information about the patient’s treatment can be stolen and also can be changed. If someone changes the complete history of the patient’s treatments. So, it can be a danger for the patient’s next treatments. 4. Time-Consuming in Recovery The technological machines and gadgets which are used in the hospital for treatments and checkups of the patients are made by engineers and programmers. If there come some kind of faults and errors. So, no one can fix it because they didn’t have the knowledge of recovering and fixing that machine. It required a specific person who has knowledge of it. The engineers who made it. He can fix it. So, it consumes a lot of time fixing and recovering the machines. 5. Damaging Cells and Organs of the Body of the Patients Now a day’s lasering surgeries are very famous. Which has a lot of bad effects on the human body? The lasers can damage the cells of the body. It can damage our other internal organs in our body, which is very harmful, 6. Patients Online Treatment Through Technology Nowadays the doctors do online treatments. The patients contact them online and suggest the diagnosis to take. The patients have not to go to the clinic of the doctors. They can easily get the treatment at home. Without any checkup and analysis of the patient’s the doctor gives them the diagnosis. Which can be wrong and can be dangerous for the patient’s health. 7. Automatic Machine Treatment There is a kind of machine which is fixed in the patient’s body. It analyzes the patient’s body and inserts the medicines in patients’ bodies according to their body conditions. These machines are made by programming in their programming if there come some errors and bugs. Then it is very harmful to the patients because it can insert the wrong diagnosis in the patient’s body. which causes the critical condition and death of the patient. Artificial Organs Could Solve Transplant Shortages The thought of an off-the-shelf heart that could replace a failed one is a tempting proposition, and one that a few companies have cracked. Notable among them is BiVACOR of Houston, Texas. BiVACOR’s eponymously named total artificial heart (TAH) device is an option available to patients with end-stage heart failure who do not qualify for transplants. Another important company, SynCardia Systems (Tucson, Ariz.), has developed a temporary TAH device—an implantable system that can take over heart functions—for patients suffering end-stage biventricular heart failure. The device is intended to be used only as a bridge to donor heart transplantation, and is the only one approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Union and Canadian regulatory boards. With the advent of 3-D printing and tissue engineering, one can think beyond electromechanical pumps that can serve as hearts to visualize an artificial one in, quite literally, flesh and blood. The race is on to develop a functional, tissue-based artificial organ that would mimic organs in physical and physiological functions, such as secretion of hormones, nurturing vasculature, and growth and modeling as the individual grows. Stephen Badylak, professor and deputy director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, is working on a functional liver that is suitable for transplantation. Badylak’s approach involves harvesting a patient’s stem cells and culturing them in specially designed 3-D scaffolds. The hope is that these cells will develop into a functional organ when supplied with appropriate growth nutrients. Because the cells are retrieved from the patients themselves, the challenges of organ rejection and immune response are bypassed. Artificial Organs for Medical Research While the delay in producing a fully functional, dimension-matched organ will disappoint the organ transplant market, it is still news worth cheering. In fact, the entire pharmaceutical industry waits with bated breath for tissues that resemble actual human tissues. Such analogues are of great importance for drug testing. San Diego-based Organovo has been at the forefront of commercializing 3-D bioprinting of tissues for medical research. The company has successfully printed patches of tissues of the liver, lung, heart and kidneys for use by research partners. The company’s ExVive line of human liver and kidney tissues are used in toxicology studies and other preclinical drug testing. This application of artificial organs has tremendous potential to accelerate the drug development process, lower costs, and reduce the need for animal and clinical testing. In fact, L’Oreal, the global cosmetics company, sources 3-D-printed human skin tissues from Organovo with the aim of reducing much-reviled animal tests. L’Oreal already owns a patent on Episkin, a tissue-engineered skin product that has been developed by incubating skin cells donated by surgery patients. The partnership with Organovo would enable L’Oreal to print them more easily, and to requirements. Electronic Skin Can Give Robots a “Human” Touch Skin is the largest organ of the human body, and a highly complex one. Recreating the skin involves imparting the sensations of touch, pressure and temperature to the artificial material. Such an artificial skin would no doubt be of great value to burn victims and patients undergoing extensive surgery. However, an application that is now the fuel for science-fiction movies could soon be a reality: providing robots with sensory inputs. SmartCore, a project funded by the European Research Council and executed by researchers at the Graz University of Technology in Austria aims to create a material that would respond to varied stimuli. To achieve this, the team has developed a novel material that is lined with an array of nanosensors whose sensitivity far exceeds that of the human skin. Although still in early stages, the team is designing a “smart” core—a polymer that would expand when exposed to humidity and temperature and is encased in a piezoelectric shell that produces an electric current when pressure is applied. These cores receive the stimuli and transmit them to the robotic system. The team aims to display the prototype by 2019, after which specific applications would be explored. Artificial Womb Raises Hope for Premature Babies In April 2017, researchers from the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced—and published—that they had developed the world’s first artificial womb. Nicknamed BioBag, these “wombs” resemble Ziploc bags with tubes of amniotic fluid, oxygen, nutrients and blood weaving in and out. Inside the bags, though, the researchers managed to nurture fetal lambs. In August 2017, a similar womb was devised by an unrelated group: researchers from Women and Infants Research Foundation in Australia, the University of Western Australia, and Tohoku University Hospital in Japan. Aptly named ex-vivo uterine environment (EVE) therapy, it has raised expectations of a viable and repeatable womblike environment. The Road Ahead Frost & Sullivan believes that the road ahead for artificial organs is paved by enthusiastic researchers, funding agencies and a collaborative ecosystem. However, there are also roadblocks in the form of ethical concerns, regulatory requirements, device cost, and safety concerns because of a lack of long-term clinical data. The answer would be detours that may still lead to lucrative destinations. The use of artificial skin tissues for medical and cosmetic research is an example. Similarly, an artificial womb to gestate a human embryo would be a tall task, and one that would unearth numerous ethical, moral and legal questions; however, an acceptable route for the time being would be to use the womb to save the lives and improve the health of the millions of pre-term babies that are born every year. What are artificial organs used for? Generally, an artificial organ is an engineered device that can be implanted or integrated into a human body—interfacing with living tissue—to replace a natural organ, to duplicate or augment a specific function or functions so the patient may return to a normal life as soon as possible What are the advantages of 3D printing in medicine? The application of 3D printing in medicine can provide many benefits, including: the customization and personalization of medical products, drugs, and equipment; costeffectiveness; increased productivity; the democratization of design and manufacturing; and enhanced collaboration. In the prevailing testing times, with hospitals being filled with COVID infected patients and the severe lack of infrastructure and equipment becoming a severe issue, technology has emerged as the saviour. Presenting itself as the solution for a few of these issues is the 3D printing technology. Various healthcare facilities have turned towards 3D printing for offering proper protective equipment for their staff, and the parts for fixing their ventilators. These 3D printers have allowed several ventilator and PPR components to be carried and adopted by hospitals. What is 3D Printing technology? 3D printing technology adopts computer-aided design (CAD) for creating threedimensional objects via a layering approach. Also termed as additive manufacturing, this technology incorporates layering items such as composites, blio materials, plastics etc, for generating objects in different sizes, shapes, colors and severity. 3D printers adopt likewise approaches for traditional inkjet printers, although in 3D. Via a mix of precision tools and advanced software, it allows three-dimensional objects to be developed from scratch. This printing technology is also highly befitting for creating complex, bespoke items, to make it fitting when it comes to rapid prototyping. Examples of 3D Printing A variety of technology forms and materials are incorporated in 3D printing with the technology being adopted in almost every industry that we can consider. The technology has varied applications in a variety of industries. Recommended blog - Differential Privacy A couple of examples include consumer items (from eyewear, footwear, furniture to design), industrial items (from manufacturing tools, prototypes to functional end-use parts), dental items, prosthetics, architectural scale models & maquettes, reconstructing fossils, replicating ancient artefacts and reconstructing evidence in forensic pathology. 3D Printing Technologies There are three types of 3D printing technology - sintering, melting, and stereolithography. Sintering - This is a technology in which the material gets heated, although not till the condition of melting, for creating high resolution products. While metal powder is adopted to carry out direct metal laser sintering, the thermoplastic powders are adopted for selective laser sintering. Melting - 3D printing approaches include powder bed fusion, electron beam melting and direct energy deposition. These adopt lasers or electron beams for printing objects by softening the materials collectively. Stereolithography - Adopts photopolymerization for creating parts. This technology makes use of the proper source of light for interacting with the materials selectively for curing and solidifying the object’s cross section in delicate layers. 10 ADVANTAGES OF 3D PRINTING 1. SPEED The main perk of 3D printing is primarily the speed at the rate of which the parts are generally produced in comparison to the traditional manufacturing approaches. The CAD model allows intricate designs to be uploaded and printed in a handful of hours. 3D printing also allows for rapid verification as well as the development of design concepts. While earlier it used to take around days to weeks to gain a prototype, additive manufacturing allows the model to be prepared only in a couple of hours. Although industrial additive manufacturing machines generally take more time for printing and post-processing a part, the capacity of producing functional end parts at low to mid volumes facilitates a massive time-saving perk in relation to traditional manufacturing approaches. 2. COST In case of small production, 3D printing is a highly efficient and useful manufacturing process. Conventional prototyping approaches such as CNC machining necessitate a high number of costly machines and have higher labor expenses since they call for well experienced machine operators and technicians for operating them. This is in contrast with the 3D printing procedure in which merely a couple of machines and a lesser number of operators are required (in accordance with the system) for manufacturing a part. As a result, less waste material is generated as the part is developed from scratch rather than being carved from solid blocks. Recommended blog - Top Breakthrough Technologies 3. FLEXIBILITY Yet another useful perk of 3D printing is that the given printer can develop anything fitting inside its build volume. Through traditional manufacturing procedures, every fresh part or alteration in part design would need a fresh tool, mold or jig for being manufactured to develop a fresh part. 3D printing, as opposed to traditional approaches, permits the inclusion of multiple materials in a single object, allowing a range of colors, textures, and mechanical characteristics to be varied and coordinated 3D printing permits all users, even the ones who have less computer-aided design experience, to edit designs in the way they prefer, developing unique, personalized fresh parts. This also implies that each offered design can be developed through an array of varied materials. This image shows the advantages of 3D Printing Technology namely - 1. Speed 2. Cost 3. Flexibility 4. Competitive Advantage 5. Tangible Design and Product Testing 6. Quality 7. Consistency 8. Risk Reduction 9. Accessibility 10. Sustainability Advantages of 3D Printing Technology 4. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Owing to the speed and lower expenses of 3D printing, the life cycles of products are minimised. Businesses can boost products, in turn enabling them to offer better items in a lesser time period. 3D printing enables the physical testimony of fresh products to consumers and investors, as a result, minimizing the risk of the data being mistaken or lacking amidst communication. It also enables efficient testing of markets, gaining potential consumer feedback and investors on tangible items, while avoiding the risk of massive cost for prototyping. 5. TANGIBLE DESIGN AND PRODUCT TESTING The experience of feeling and touching the prototype of a product cannot be compared with looking at the product on the screen. The physical prototype can be tested and if any flaws are discovered the computer aided design file can be adjusted and a fresh version can be printed by the following day. 6. QUALIT The traditional manufacturing approaches can lead to poor designs and bad quality prototypes. In case of the involved elements not being blended properly, the end result can be spoiled, such as in case of subtractive or injection approaches, the quality is not often assured. 3D Printing allows for step by step assembling of the product or its part, in turn assuring for the boosting of the design and improved quality parts or items. 7. CONSISTENCY The conventional manufacturing procedures can lead to some of the parts ending up being inconsistent or damaged in terms of quality as compared to the remaining parts. In case of 3D printing, the parts are printed in a sequence. Every sequential individual part can be overseen, permitting the errors to be tracked promptly, minimizing the overall number of disregarded parts and wasted components while boosting consistent quality gained from the generated parts. 8. REDUCES RIS 3D printing enables businesses to minimize their manufacturing risks. It enables product designers to verify product prototypes prior to 3D printing technology and allows product designers to verify product prototypes prior to kickstarting on substantial manufacturing investments which can prove to be disastrous. 9. ACCESSIBILITY 3D printing systems are far more accessible and can be adopted by a larger number of people as opposed to conventional manufacturing setups. As opposed to the great degree of expense involved in managing conventional manufacturing systems, 3D printing setups involve lesser cost. Being almost entirely automated they also require minimal personnel for operating, supervising and handling the machine, ensuring that it remains more accessible in comparison to other manufacturing systems. Recommended blog - RPA in manufacturing 10. SUSTAINABILITY Through 3D printing, less parts need to be outsourced for manufacturing. This implies less impact on the environment as lesser number of things are shipped around the globe and there is less requirement for operating and maintaining an energy-consuming factory. 3D printing generates quite a few waste materials for a single part and the materials adopted in 3D printing are usually recyclable. Disadvantages of 3D printing Lesser strength in comparison to conventional manufacture: Many 3D printed parts are quite fragile as opposed to the conventional manufacturing approaches, apart from the ones created from metal which have effective mechanical characteristics. This is largely owing to the parts being constructed layer-by-layer, which highly minimizes its strength. Elevated cost at high volume: Generally carrying out large production operations is more costly through 3D printing owing to less impact from economies of scale. As per estimates, when a direct comparison is made between similar parts, 3D printing is deduced to be less cost-effective in comparison with the parts being developed using conventional manufacturing approaches. Limitations in accuracy: The precision of a printed part relies on the kind of machine and/or procedure adopted. A few desktop printers have lesser tolerances in comparison to other printers, implying that the final parts can be different in comparison to the designs. Although this can be mended through post-processing, it has to be ensured that 3D printed parts might not be precise every time. Post-processing requirements: Most of the 3D printed parts need a certain kind of postprocessing. This can be smoothing for developing a required finish or getting heat treatment for achieving particular material properties as well as final machining. Conclusion 3D Printers have occupied a versatile role in each industry, apart from prototyping. Various 3D printers are charged with printing finished items. For instance, In the case of the healthcare industry, 3 printers have started getting adopted for creating parts to mend unhinged ventilators in the COVID19 outbreak. Meanwhile, the construction industry has been adopting a futuristic printing method for printing out entire homes. Even schools across the world are adopting 3D printers to introduce hands-on learning to classrooms through the printing of robotic pieces and three-dimensional dinosaur bones. The adaptive and adjustable nature of 3D printing technology has made it the turning point for each industry that it enters.