{"id":396,"date":"2019-03-11T13:01:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T13:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/?p=396"},"modified":"2019-03-27T13:30:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T13:30:50","slug":"technology-the-double-edged-scalpel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/2019\/03\/11\/technology-the-double-edged-scalpel\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology: The Double-Edged Scalpel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
by Anna Jemi-Alade<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The exciting news\nflashes across your screen: You have just received $500 for using your daily\nfitness-tracking app for one month! Who knew exercise could provide both a\nhandsome financial reward and improved health?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of\nsmartphone applications in other aspects of preventative care such as patients\nkeeping track of their own health conditions and medications will soon be the\nnorm. The consequential benefits are two-fold: patients would experience a\nreduction in office visits and physicians would have a reduced workload. This\nis vital if a crisis in the American health industry is to be avoided.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New technology\nthat utilizes smartphones and places more care into the hands of the patient is\nnecessary because doctors are overworked and according to the American Medical\nAssociation, physician shortages are predicted to reach 120,000 by the year\n2030. This is due in part to the Affordable Care Act of 2010, which increased\nthe number of insured Americans by making insurance more accessible. However,\nwhile this is a laudable achievement, when it is combined with the retiring\n\u201cbaby boomer\u201d population, this has increased the workload for physicians across\nthe country, to the point where physician burnout is at an all-time high.  It is estimated that burnout is affecting\nover half (54%) of all doctors practicing in the U.S., according to the\nAmerican Journal of Medicine. Unless medical schools can significantly increase\nmatriculation, and add more doctors to the practicing pool, burnout will limit\naccess to quality healthcare across the U.S. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another way to\nprovide quality care at home through smart devices is to utilize artificial\nintelligence. Stanford University is currently testing apps that can diagnose\nskin cancer, where the software is programed to recognize cancer by using a\ndatabase containing thousands of pictures of melanomas. One of the most\nexciting developments in preventative care is the creation of the Crisis\nTextline, which uses a smartphone to connect mental health patients to a\ntrained counselor. Suicides have been prevented in children as young as eleven\nwho have trusted a familiar piece of technology to reach out for help. This\nwill be a continued area of growth based on the unprecedented number of texters\nwho used the service in 2018. The future is ripe for the development of apps\nthat monitor patients\u2019 mental health conditions through the smartphone\u2019s built-in\nsensors. Depression results in slower speech, while mania leads to faster\nspeech, which can be tracked and recorded by the phone, allowing doctors to\nmonitor their patients\u2019 conditions remotely. These apps will increase early\ndiagnoses and alert physicians before conditions worsen, leading to better\nhealth outcomes and less follow-up work for providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology can\ndeliver both exciting and brutal news within seconds. Whether you have won $500\nor just been diagnosed with skin cancer, technology lacks the empathy that only\na human being can provide. However, by partnering technology with trained\nphysicians, patients in the future will be more empowered than ever to take\nownership of their health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The exciting news flashes across your screen: You have just received $500 for using your daily fitness-tracking app for one month! Who knew exercise could provide both a handsome financial reward and improved health? The use of smartphone applications in other aspects of preventative care such as patients keeping track of their own health conditions....<\/p>

Read more about Technology: The Double-Edged Scalpel<\/span><\/path><\/path><\/svg><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":269,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-m-s-biomedicine","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/269"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":398,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}