Progress in the Medical Field

Nancy LuWanda Tyree

Lui Sowa

World Literature

May 23, 2013

What is progress? According to Webster's dictionary progress is defined as: Noun, Forward or onward movement toward a destination. Verb, Move forward or onward in space or time: "as the century progressed, the quality of telescopes improved". But what is the true nature of progress and how does it apply to computers in the medical field? The medical field is full of progressive technologies and the most prevalent progressive technology in the medical field is its computers. The computers used in the medical field vary from the basic electronic records of patients to the extreme computers such as the Da Vinci which is a surgical robotic system. Each computer in the medical field is there to help patients and physicians and to keep medicine running smoothly. The advancements of computers in the medical field are driven by societies need to streamline everything. There are many different types of computers but the fundamental reasons for them are to increase longevity, decrease patients symptoms quickly so they recover faster. Patients also like the less invasive scans versus a physician palpating every inch of their body to try and diagnosis a problem. Computers help from diagnosis to treatment and follow up. From first meeting with a physician, to diagnosing symptoms, to having scans to verify diagnosis to performing surgeries unassisted my the hands of a surgeon, computers are found in every step of the medical field. I will show you how each progressive computer a patient would come across and how they will help patients maintain healthier longer lives.

When a patient enters a physician's office they no longer see paper charts instead they will see the office staff and physician with something similar to an ipad. This device has all the patients' information stored by patient name and an identification number. During the 1970s and 1980s, several electronic medical record systems were developed and further refined by various academic and research institutions. In 2009 congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This act is to pressure physicians to adopt electronic charts versus paper charts, with penalties to any physician who has not changed to electronic medical records (E.M.R.) by 2015. The EMR are designed to increase overall efficiency and portability. The efficiency is due to a streamlined approach of looking up a patients previous diagnosis which would all be listed in one are versus flipping thru page by page in a patients paper chart. Portability is also essential when more than one physician is involved in the care of a patient. The doctors can send updates straight to the other physicians and they will automatically be placed in the patients E.M.R. For the sake of the injured and unconscious patient that ends up in an ambulance and E.M.R. that can be sent to the emergency room physician while the patient is en-route to the emergency room can mean the matter of life and death.

Once a patient is admitted into a hospital they are given an identification bracelet with a bar code on it. The same bar code is on the patient's medications and their IV's. Each time anything is given to the patient the bracelet bar code is scanned then the medication is scanned to verify the right medications are given at the right time to the right patient. All this information is sent directly to the patients chart as well as which staff member was the one recording the information and giving the patient the medication. These checks and balances due to the computerized systems help save patients' lives by preventing medication errors. They also help prevent medications from being stolen by hospital staff members since there is direct accountability.

If a patient is having unidentified pain, in any area in their body physicians have many different computerized virtual imaging systems to choose from to help diagnosis the patient. A very basic and non-invasive computerized test is an ultrasound. Dr. Ian Donald invented the ultrasound machine in 1957. An ultrasound scan is a device that uses ultra-high frequency sound waves to create an image of some part of the body, such as the heart, stomach, liver, tendons, muscles, joints and blood vessels. Since sound waves are much safer to fetuses ultrasounds are used on pregnant women to check the development of the babies during their pregnancy.

The most archaic and still widely used is the X-ray machine. Professor Wilhelm Roentgen invented the x-ray machine in December of 1895. The X-ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation that is sent thru the body and caught on the films underneath the patient. Structures that are mostly dense will show up white on an x-ray such as bones. . X-rays are generally ordered if a patient is suspected to have a broken bone which generally shows up clearly on a basic x-ray. Since muscles and other soft tissues such as organs are only seen as shades of gray other radiological testing may be ordered to further investigate to find the cause of the pain

A computed tomography scan may be ordered, which is more commonly referred to as a CT scan. CT was invented in 1972 by British engineer Godfrey Hounsfield of EMI Laboratories, England and by South Africa-born physicist Allan Cormack of Tufts University, Massachusetts. Hounsfield and Cormack were later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their contributions to medicine and science. A CT scan is the process of generating a two dimensional image of a slice or section through a three dimensional object. Which just means the ct scanned takes many x-rays from different angles then places them all together to make one 3-D picture. These picture are more in-depth than just a single picture gotten from a basic x-ray machine and more costly also. A contrast dye can be used if a CT scan in needed of the abdomen. The patient is given either and oral medication or an IV, the contrast dye shows up as white as it travels thru the organs of the patient. These CT scans are used when there is more in-depth pictures needed and usually after a basic x-ray has found nothing of consequence.

If the CT shows nothing yet the patient may next be given an magnetic resonance imaging or referred to as an M.R.I. Dr. Damadian proposed the MRI scanner in 1971 and received a patent in 1972. The first scan of the human body was until in 1977. An M.R.I. works by using a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to make pictures of organs and structures inside the body. The M.R.I. gives different information than an x-ray or C.T. scan can give and can better visualize the soft tissues of the body. An M.R.I. is done for many reasons. It is used to find problems such as tumors,