Contribution of technology to medical tourism

Technology and its applications have intensely permeated all living world and this makes their entry into the field of medicine inevitable. From increasing overall life expectancy, aiding painless surgeries, researching stem cells to using robotics for curing life threatening disorders—technical knowhow now has answers for almost all ailments.

Technologies forming the crux, more and more patients are now crossing borders to avail the best a nation's medical science can offer. Proliferation of virulent or genetically inherited disorders, hitherto unknown therapeutic complications, esoteric demands for cosmetology and vital surgeries have all led to the exigent marriage of technology to medical tourism. 

Technology has arrived big time in the medical tourism sector and is definitely here to stay. Evolving rapidly along with the pace at which lifestyle disorders are conquering the world population, it has become the emerging face and an indivisible aspect of any treatment regimen undertaken abroad. At this rate, every individual across the world will soon be able to avail state-of-the-art facilities of disease alleviation and the day is not far, when no death will occur due to lack of apposite medical care.

Technology has contributed to knowledge advancement for medical tourism

Applications of concepts such as Web 2.0 and 3.0, cloud computing, mobile technology, semantic knowhow et cetera are not limited to Information Technology anymore but are being actively applied to benefit agile medical practitioners, across the world. For instance, an Australian doctor who wishes to learn a particular surgical procedure from his European counterpart can effortlessly do so, from the comfort of his clinic through videos based on web2.0 application or through a live webcast.

Technology has contributed to better customer service for medical tourism

Irrespective of the convalescent’s origin or time zone, medical information services are available to him twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and three hundred and sixty five days a year. Toll-free telephone services, internet connections, web portals and email have opened doors to the seeker’s questions on almost anything, be it healthcare facilities, physicians, specializations or general amenities and ambience. These services convey information and aid in advanced confirmation of all interrelated services.

International credit cards, instant banking services, loan sanctions, web payment gateways, easy health-insurance schemes, and other allied financial technologies have dissolved geographical barriers and have not just reduced overheads but have also accelerated the pace of the treatment procedure, incredibly.

Technology has contributed to cost reduction for medical tourism

Technologies, as described above have considerably reduced several procedural hassles otherwise involved during treatment in a foreign country. Awareness and promotional programs tutor the foreign nationals with respect to the norms of the regimen. Service automations include obtainment of information, planning the complete modus operandi—travelling, lodging booking and payment of the hospital charges in advance.

Technology has contributed to create Electronic Record Management for medical tourism

An electronic medical record is the computerization (or soft copy version) of an individual’s legal medical records, created in an authentic healthcare establishment which metes out different medical services. These records are a discrete account of the person’s health information and could be retrieved, stored, modified and augmented as per his/her current clinical status. Managing electronic records and particularly electronic medical records, requires essential endeavours akin to analyzing, planning, overseeing, systematizing, development, endorsing etc, with respect to the maintenance of vital medical information. 

Systems like integrated information management, data security, storage and recuperation techniques are developed and upheld by trained, competent staff for effective sustenance. The main objective here is the attainment of sufficient and accurate records of a patient’s clinical history and also that of a medical centre’s strategies, communications and capabilities. The electronic medical record is consistent and at the same time flexible enough to allow supplementation; it is economical, enforces quality assurance and helps maintain an integrated record of medical information, available and accessible on the web or through electronic media. Availability of such information can facilitate online treatment and trigger a possibility where the computer itself can aid in taking critical decisions during emergencies through semantic or an integrated problem-solving approach.

In the case of medical tourists, web EMRs allow online or web admittance to the patient’s data thus giving foreign physicians absolute, precise, and instantaneous access to the complete medical history of patients. The amount of time that is saved by using an EMR system gives way to enhanced patient-physician communication. Examples of some widely used, open source EMR software are AnSWR Analysis Software, OpenEMR, OSCAR, RAVEN-SB, STD-MIS, VersaForm EMR and the like.

Technology has contributed to secure medical data transfer for medical tourism

Given the wide applications of information technology being used in current medical travel, it becomes of utmost importance that strong security standards for the protection of health records of all travellers be established. It could be extremely simple for a data hacker to access critical databases with millions of hospital or patient details and pass them on into the wrong hands, in the absence of adequate security. It is the responsibility of individual users, the medical establishment and network administrators to implement secure practices like organisational and legal regulations, use of passwords, antiviral security and scanners, secure data interchange protocols, access control systems or electronic signatures to institute basic security values for the medical network fraternity based on international standards like ISO/IEC 27001 and BSI17799.          

Technology has contributed to create mobile medical technology for medical tourism

It can be rightly assumed that mobile technology does not exist in the future of medicine any longer but is an integral part of its present. Thanks to advances in mobile software, Smartphones are now programmed to allow doctors to make diagnoses from anywhere in the world. Software companies like QxMD and Epocrates Rx provide basic medical applications like mobile medical reference guides for BlackBerry Smartphones, which aid physicians in securing medical data by assuring instant access to information on specific drugs, their dosage specificities, related interactions and so forth. Tablet PCs also meet a number of critical needs faced by the new age medicos; be it scanning the barcode or physical identity of a patient for accessing their medical history or taking actual snapshots of the subject.

Some examples of other mobile gizmos are mobile X-ray machines, special diagnostic software made for iPhones and cell phones that detect airborne pathogens, allow health record uploads, monitor daily physical movement, validate medical decisions or even diagnose diseases directly.