Healthcare Hardware

Thoughts swirl in my head while thinking about the practical applications of computers. The possibilities are endless!

However, on idea kept coming back to me, Healthcare. Healthcare is an integral part of society. It's one of the primary reasons human lifespans have extended as far as they have. In a similar vein, IT is an integral part of Healthcare. For example, as a patient, you likely had to or were recommended to create a MyChart account during a visit. MyChart is a patient-facing app created by Epic. Epic is far and above the most prominent Healthcare software systems in the world right now. It is a software suite that has systems for most areas of healthcare: patient documentation, clinical studies/trials, and integrated billing systems to name a few. If you have Epic, you have the capacity to run an organization, all on the same platform. 

Alongside the software is a host of hardware. In particular, there is specialized medical equipment. Robots and vital sign monitors can be commonly seen on nursing floors. Data from these machines aid in the patient care process and need to be recorded, stored, and interpreted.  

All this to say, computer literacy is a requirement to work at any respectable Hospital. The ability to use a keyboard and mouse will take normal employees very far. For most, that is all that is needed. However, other more specialized employees may need to know how to interact with unique apps or workflows. For example, the place I work at recently, FINALLY threw out an AS400 system. For those that are uninitiated, AS400’s are IBM computers designed and released in 1988. It ran exlusively off of command line! The computer ran an important system and was very hard to find a modern solution for; so until recently, there were a few regular employees that knew how to navigate a command line OS. 

Within the hospital IT space, most systems and upgrades are done to make employees’ lives easier. For example, there have been recent developments with an Epic AI assistant. When doctors attempt to diagnose a patient, the AI takes documentation written about the patient and gives advice. It does not outright diagnose the patient, but it does suggest conditions that the patient could have. Granted, the human body is incredibly complex and an AI that takes this into account can still report false positives. However, if the tech is refined enough AI could help patients get diagnosed faster, which could lead to better outcomes. 

When it comes to new things, I am always extremely skeptical. None more so than developments in IT. Despite this, I am excited about developments in hospitals. We are already seeing advances in hospital software and hardware. On a grand scale, there are machines that allow inhuman precision for doctors performing operations. Even in day-to-day matters there are improvements towards providing less clicks for workflow, make a workflow easier to learn/understand, automate an incredibly inconvenient process, and make data easier to upload/download/interact with. Less time with IT gives healthcare workers more time with patients, which benefits patient care. Most people forget that some patients admitted to a hospital are on a timer. If this timer runs out, their condition could worsen and cause irreversible damage. Time saved by better systems could literally be the difference between life and death.