How the healthcare industry will pan out over the next one year

We are living in an era where the symbiotic relationship between mankind and technology has achieved an irreversible state. Today, in every aspect of life, technology is incorporated in a way that it makes life impossible without technology.

In ancient times, death and disease were not regarded as natural phenomena by humans. Common ailments, such as colds and constipation, were accepted as a part of life and treated with whatever herbal remedies were available at that time.

Serious and disabling diseases, on the other hand, were assigned as supernatural in nature, and treated as such by various means, deemed fit for the same at that time.

Then with the advancement of time, the health system made itself better by applying various systematic research, and incorporating other fields into medicine. This advancement of medical field is an ongoing and continuous process, which is still happening today, making medicine better and better.

The Covid-19 pandemic has tested both humanity and health system to the brink of limit, and they have proven that medicine is almost efficient to tackle such hazards. The pandemic has also shown the capability of the medicine as vaccines, diagnostic modalities, and other supportive treating measures were developed in a short span of time.

Many innovative leaps in health technology have been made over time, but few have had the widespread influence or impact that digital technology has. Significant advancements in networking and computing have not only expanded medical treatment options but have also transformed how clinicians perform their jobs.

As early as the 1960s, forward thinkers discussed the possibility of using computers in medicine, but at such time the computers were too expensive, making them somewhat unusable to be used in medicine. As technology advanced and costs decreased, policies and data standards were developed to encourage healthcare organizations to adopt new technology not only for medical equipment, such as diagnostic imaging machines, but also for daily record keeping.

The benefits of technology in healthcare can be listed as improved patient care and experiences, real-time information exchange, flexibility for patients and clinicians, safe data storage for unlimited period of time, and recall of data at any time or place.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is also being tested and incorporated in healthcare services. Currently the efforts are focused on supporting clinical-decision and uncovering useful insights from large collections of data to incorporate AI into healthcare. So much data has been accumulated by healthcare organizations that it would be impossible to analyze it without AI. Artificial intelligence-enabled tools can easily skim through large and complex data sets generated by electronic records, notes, images, sensors, and devices to identify trends that could improve patient care and assist scholars in developing better treatment plans for medical conditions. Although AI technology is still in its early stages, there are numerous applications that could benefit institutions throughout the healthcare industry.

Role of technology in the field of forensic medicine. Although the field of forensic medicine started to develop since early Christian era, incorporation of technology in the field is still in the stage of research. Some radiological, analytical, and biological assay methods are being used since early 19th century. The virtual autopsy and the efforts to incorporate artificial images are the sincere approaches to assimilate technology into the field of forensic medicine.

Virtual autopsy also known as virtopsy, is a non-invasive approach employed in the field of forensics. Virtopsy was developed by Richard Dirnhofer as a scalpel-free autopsy procedure that later evolved into a multitool documentation and analysis research project that combined 3D body surface imaging methods with merged CT/MRI data and 3D shape analysis. It may provide intuitive and powerful court evidence for forensic identification by objectively and accurately reflecting fractures, soft tissue injuries, wound extent, and organ damage. Virtual autopsy includes the combined and systematic application of various techniques like virbot (assisting robot), photogrammetry, and surface scanning, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and various angiographic techniques.

Artificial intelligence has given forensic medicine new life, but it has also introduced new challenges. AI and forensic medicine are co-developing, and advanced AI implementation has previously required extensive interdisciplinary collaboration. In the age of big data, forensic experts must become acquainted with advanced algorithms and understand technical terms.

Outlook. The benefit of keeping data in digital form is its easy accessibility and freedom from manipulations. As per law of the land, if at all any patient records are asked by the court of law, it must be produced there within 72 hours. This law also goes in favor of digital recordkeeping. The indoor patient records should be preserved for three years. For routine cases, patient records should be preserved for six years, and if patient dies during treatment in the hospital, then this record must be preserved for three years. It is mandatory to preserve all medical records for at least 10 years.