Technology changing Health Care

When we hear the word "technology", we often think of the newest iPhone that apple created or we think about the internet and how it improved our lives and is constantly changing every day. Technology is always improving and always changing our lives and it always will be, that is an inevitable fact that we need to learn to accept. We think about how it improves our daily lives like now we text rather than calling someone. We now live in a generation where phone calls cause anxiety for some people. However, we tend to forget that technology is also improving health care in so many amazing ways. So, I decided to compile a list of what revolutionary health care technology is the best and the coolest (in my opinion).

1. Heart transplants are rare because not many people are willing to donate. Only 30% of candidates have a liable heart and even less people are a match for those that need it. As soon as doctors get a phone call about a heart the race against time starts, there are only several hours before the heart is no longer viable for the patient that needs it. There is an amazing piece of technology that will now save multiple lives. TransMedics Organ Care System or OCS. What does that even mean? well, have you ever watched Grey's Anatomy? when they do a transplant and need to carry an organ they take a box, which is usually a cooler and put the organ in it for transportation. Now, there is a much safer way of doing this. The Organ Care system can keep the organ alive for much longer through the use of technology. This decreases so many risks because the organ can be kept alive for much longer, which means many more lives can be saved with this box. With a regular cooler there are less than eight hours to transport the organ, get the patient in the OR (operating room) and then do surgery all before the eight hours are up. The portable system can keep a heart alive and pumping blood, thus making the survival hours much longer and chances of the body rejecting the new organ are lower. Usually, when a body rejects an organ it is because of damage. If doctors can keep organs alive for longer, it decreases that risk by at least 60%. That is revolutionary.

Below is a posted video...

2. Organs on Chips. Are you against animal testing? Then, you are going to like this one. A microchip can solve all of these problems. If anything needs to be tested like a new drug then researchers can use the microchip and see what sort of reaction will come from the chip. This can prevent us from doing clinical trials and animal testing. The chip can tell researchers what will happen if the new drug will work on a human. Animals are not that accurate when it comes to doing a test, our bodies are much different than rabbits or rats. Now, there is a lung chip which mimics the movement of a lung and how it reacts to certain chemicals, it also mimics the airways and the functionality of it, this is just one example of how the microchip works. It is also expensive to do animal tests. Animal tests can be as expensive as 16 billion dollars a year and that is just in the USA alone. This microchip is safe to use and animals are not being harmed in any way for tests. It is also easy to use.

See the video below...

3. Cars in healthcare. We spend a lot of time getting from one place to another such as commuting to work, to go shopping at Costco or taking a road trip. Something amazing is happening in healthcare. Now, Mercedes is working on a piece of technology in a car to tell drivers if they are too tired to drive, which decreases the risks of falling asleep behind the wheel and causing a car accident. Anything that the person touches in the car such as the wheel, the seat belt have sensors that can detect something like a drop in blood sugar or fatigue. I am not sure how the fatigue works, but that's what Mercedes claim they are doing with their new cars. The car manufactures are trying to find more and more ways to detect symptoms that can affect your driving.