Using medical technolology appropriately to amplify a doctor's efficiency

There is no question that technology can be a two-edged sword. Technology can cause healthcare to become depersonalized – for example, when doctors are more interested in looking at x-rays and reading lab reports rather than laying hands on the patient or talking to the patient . It’s true that today there is too much emphasis on poring over scan images and analysing lab printouts, especially when we have super specialists who deal with organs rather than with patients. This causes doctors to transmit an image of being uncaring and unfeeling. This is why a lot of patients feel that doctors are not very interested in them as people, but are much more interested in the particular pathological lesion or disease which they happen to have.

While it's true that technology can cause these undesirable side effects it’s also equally true that technology when used cleverly can help to amplify a doctor’s efficiency and effectiveness. One of the things the doctor needs to do a lot of is patient education and counseling. Sometimes , this is not something which doctors are good at – and many are not very interested in doing this either, as they feel it’s basic , boring and simple. It's in these situations that doctors can intelligently use patient educational videos, many of which are now available online , so that they can empower their patients with information , without actually having to go through the nuts and bolts of what's wrong with them personally .

Not only does this save a lot of time for the Doctor , it also ensures that the patient absorbs and retains the information much more effectively , because it's been crafted in an audiovisual format which is much more memorable. It also allows the doctor-patient conversation to then proceed at a much more highly evolved plane because the patient already knows the basics and can now focus only on the points which are of special concern to him. This kind of intelligent use of technology helps to increase patient satisfaction - and the doctor’s professional satisfaction as well.