Faculty of Future Health
Technology has expanded so much in the past decade. It is an integral part of everyday life, and society couldn’t function properly without it anymore. It is used in almost all aspects of life, and that doesn’t exclude healthcare.
Healthcare has always been very traditional, sticking to the old methods of medication and doctor-patient interaction. However, technology is increasingly being incorporated into different aspects of health. The majority of the future of healthcare is based around advancing the involvement of tech and machines.
Sam Shah is a clinician who works in the digital transformation in healthcare. He came up with the initiative “Faculty of Future Health” which is a faculty set up to further knowledge and education in clinical leadership, public health and digital health to help people advance their careers in these sectors. It’s a set of programmes designed so that they can be applied and used in the workplace.
The Role of Technologies in Healthcare
Technology is involved in all aspects of medicine. It is used to help pharmaceutical companies create medications, in GP practices and in surgeries to help make work easier for the doctors.
Have a think, have you ever had an X-Ray? Have you ever had to sign into an appointment on a tablet? Have you ever had to stay in hospital and had a monitor next to you displaying all your vitals? This is all technology, and each of these things (amongst many others) play an integral role in helping the whole process involved from diagnosis to treatment run more smoothly.
Sam explains how technology in healthcare has so many different possibilities. It helps to improve the outcomes for patients, for example by providing them with better quality treatment and support programs, with technology allowing access to so many more possibilities.
Technology will also help to improve the overall efficiency of healthcare services. Furthermore, the digital health approach and the use of digital channels will reduce any inequalities that exist within the industry whether that be inequalities in the treatment of the patients or the staff. This is because technology is something that doesn’t discriminate, and the faculty that Sam created ensures that everyone will have access to the digital programs no matter what their social or economic status is. One of the main goals of the faculty is to ensure that healthcare is more accessible to everyone.
More About the Faculty
Sam has worked with a multitude of health companies, which has allowed him to see so many different perspectives on how to go about doing things. He has seen different problems that have all different solutions and has had to adapt new ways of working with people across each organisation he has been with.
Sam explains how this has allowed him to get a real wealth of first-hand experience of what patients and colleagues are going through in the healthcare industry. It has enabled him to see what areas that need to be improved, and how they could be made better. It has allowed him to notice where technology could really make a positive difference.
How Has Coronavirus Affected Technology in Healthcare?
Sam explains how the pandemic has brought a lot of challenges to his job and, of course, to the health industry in general. He explains the incredible amount of management that had to go in to making sure things were still running smoothly and efficiently, whilst still keeping the general public and patients informed.
However, one thing that was noticed was that technology really stepped up and helped relieve some of the pressure off the healthcare worker’s shoulders. Those things that members of the public wanted to know or check when they were afraid, they might have the virus were quickly sorted out by the internet or by a simple call. This helped provide ease of access for patients and clinicians, helping to save time but also reduce friction.
Technology is progressively being incorporated into dealing with the pandemic as it goes on too. Hence, this helps provide to the government and public with statistics, guidance and with programs such as track and trace.
There are so many different types of technology being developed all the time. For example, think of the hundreds of apps made every single day! The rate that technology is expanding is incredible! One of the biggest challenges is keeping up with it and making sure we are using it to our advantage.
Sam explains how more work needs to be done on using technology to assess and regulate healthcare applications, and that inequalities are something that in particular need to be focused on.
The future of healthcare is a topic that is so interesting, and there is so much more that needs to be, and will be, done in order to improve the education skills across not just the health workforce, but all workers in general to get the best possible outcome for citizens.
