Discuss the role of technology in medical science
Answers
Answer:
&:&,99"88$85'55-4778999&7^
Answer:
Role of Information Technology in Medical Science
Information technology (IT) is the application of computers and telecommunications equipment to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data, often in the context of a business or other enterprise. Today information technology is used in wide range of fields and one of the upcoming fields is of Medical Science, which is known as Health Information Technology (HIT).
Health information technology (HIT) is the application of information processing involving both computer hardware and software that deals with the storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of health care information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision making. HIT, technology represents computers and communications attributes that can be networked to build systems for moving health information. Let's have a brief glimpse at the background of the information technology in medicine.
Worldwide use of computer technology in medicine began in the early 1950s with the rise of the computers. In 1949, Gustav Wagner established the first professional organization for health informatics in Germany. Health informatics also called Health Information Systems is a discipline at the intersection of information science, computer science, and health care. It concerns with the resources, devices, and methods required for optimizing the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine.
Health informatics tools include computers, clinical guidelines, formal medical terminologies, and information and communication sytems. It is applied to the areas of nursing, clinical care, dentistry, pharmacy, public health, occupational therapy, and (bio)medical research.
Specialized university departments and Informatics training programs began during the 1960s in France, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands. Medical informatics research units began to appear during the 1970s in Poland and in the U.S. Since then the development of high-quality health informatics research, education and infrastructure has been a goal of the U.S., European Union and many developing economies.
Use of IT in Medical Education
With the development in IT, there has been a significant change in medical education all over the world. The changes is that majority of the medical students are computer literate these days. New information on medical topics is readily accessible via the Internet and handheld computers such as palmtops, personal digital assistants (PDA). Information Technology can assist medical education in various ways such as in college networks and internet. Computer-assisted learning (CAL), Virtual reality (VR), Human patient simulators are some options. With the help of college networks and Internet, the medical students as well as the teachers may stay in contact even when they are off college.
Rapid communication can be established with the help of e-mails and course details, handouts, and feedbacks can be circulated easily. Many medical schools these days use online programs such as "Blackboard" or "student central" to underline and coordinate their courses. Such programs allow speedy access to information and quick turnaround of evaluation and messaging, and allow all tutors, assessors, and students at any site to look at the curricular context of their own particular contribution. Similarly, the Internet provides opportunities to gain up-to-date information on different aspects of health and disease and to discuss with colleagues in different continents via net conferencing. Free access to Medline, various medical journals, online textbooks and the latest information on new development in medicine also encourages learning and research.
CAL is considered as an enjoyable medium of learning and very suitable for conceptually difficult topics. Interactive digital materials for study of histopathology, anatomy and heart sounds are used widely. Development of anatomical three dimensional atlases of various internal organs using computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are very illustrative and help the students to understand the subject matter clearl