Tag: Technology

Pharmacy Automation: Will Pharmacists Be Replaced?

Author Posted by Tera Rowland on
Smiling female pharmacist in a white coat handing medication to a customer inside a pharmacy.

Would you want a robot dispensing drugs for you and your patients? Odds are, that’s long since been the case, to one extent or another:

Robotics have been used to help dispense medication in some pharmacies since the 1990s and robots for delivering medication have been used in hospitals for a decade.

And even before that, machines have been used for decades to count pills for dispensing – Such technology is now the standard in more than 30,000 pharmacies worldwide.

But will technology ever replace pharmacists completely?

Continue reading “Pharmacy Automation: Will Pharmacists Be Replaced?”

9 People Who Have Turned Medical Imaging Into Art

Author Posted by Tera Rowland on

About 5 years ago, I looked at the rainbow strands of light below and wondered if I was seeing some sort of digital art.

What I was actually seeing was a map of someone’s brain, made with a Siemens Magnetom Allegra 3-Tesla scanner at Massachusetts General Hospital.

By imaging the mobility of water molecules, the brilliant strands here showed nerve pathways – essentially a wiring diagram of a thought…maybe even a feeling. Continue reading “9 People Who Have Turned Medical Imaging Into Art”

5 Types of Patients (and How They’ve Changed in the Last 15 Years)

Author Posted by Tera Rowland on

Five years ago, patients were just starting to make use of apps and smartphones to better inform themselves about symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment at home and on-the-fly in clinics, hospitals, or wherever symptoms started to occur.

Ten years ago, patients were first starting to use the Internet en-masse to research their conditions, possible treatments, and even perused physician ratings while shopping around for a doctor.

Fifteen years ago, patients had far less access to medical information – Medical professionals were seen as the primary and sometimes sole source of insight for patients. And treatment for a number of common life-threatening ailments was significantly less advanced.

Here’s a look at the types of patients medical professionals encounter, contrasted with how they’ve changed since the 1990s: Continue reading “5 Types of Patients (and How They’ve Changed in the Last 15 Years)”

What it Takes to Run a Hospital

Author Posted by Tera Rowland on

Running a hospital is a complicated undertaking. Every component needs to be in top shape, because that’s what it takes to help people. In a lot of cases, lives are at stake, and they need every advantage to stay alive. In this article we’ll look at key components to running a hospital. While some are technical, many pieces of the puzzle involve a caring, human element.

The Systems

 

A hospital needs to operate constantly. From utilities to electricity, heating & water to oxygen, everything is essential. While many people don’t think of keeping the lawn maintained and the equipment dusted as important, these steps can be critical to warding off pests and infections.
Continue reading “What it Takes to Run a Hospital”