How Technology is Transforming Health Care
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Faster, smarter and more personalized health care. Cooper Clinic Chief Medical Officer and Preventive Medicine Physician Michele Kettles, MD, MSPH, discusses health care technology.
Health care technology is constantly changing for the benefit of both doctors and patients. The rate of advancement in technology—from tracking health trends to making records more accessible with tools like electronic medical records (EMRs) and patient portals improves care for better outcomes.
Better Care with Digital Records
In the past, medical records were stored on paper and often kept only for seven years. Now, EMRs allow doctors to store unlimited data and easily spot patterns in a patient’s health—such as rising cholesterol levels—over time. This helps physicians personalize care more effectively.
Helping Patients Access Their Health Data
Modern health care tools such as patient portals provide patients 24/7 access to their own records online. However, many doctors and hospitals use different systems, making it difficult to see everything in one place. Ideally, each patient would have a single, secure portal—a “medical vault”—that stores all their health data, which doctors can also access when needed. Progress has been made in reducing the number of patient portals, but the dream of a sole source for all medical records for any individual patient hasn’t been realized yet.
Making Health Records Easier to Share
The 21st Century Cures Act, passed in 2016, made it mandatory for doctors to share full medical records with patients. This includes lab results, imaging and doctor notes. Before this law, doctors would share only what they thought patients needed. Now, patients have access to everything, which helps them better understand and manage their own health.
The law also addresses information blocking—when systems make it hard to share data. Some companies created closed software systems to keep competitors out, but this made it hard for doctors to get the information they need. The Cures Act is pushing software companies to allow patients to have better access to their health information.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medicine
AI is one area of technology that has endless applications. To support doctors with diagnoses and treatment decisions, AI tools are now being used. One such tool is Open Evidence, a medical AI that helps physicians quickly find up-to-date, research-backed answers to complex medical questions. It uses vast amounts of clinical data and peer-reviewed studies to recommend treatment options, flag potential drug interactions and more. This helps doctors make better, faster decisions and ensures care is based on the latest scientific evidence.AI technology is also being used to help doctors better interpret diagnostic imaging. For example, at Cooper Clinic we have integrated a clinically-proven AI technology with our cardiac CT angiogram imaging to assist our physicians in more precisely identifying and measuring plaque buildup in the heart’s arteries.
A New Tool for Bone Health Assessment
Medical equipment is rapidly advancing as well. One such tool we use at Cooper Clinic is the Trabecular Bone Score (TBS). Unlike traditional bone density tests that only measure the quantity of bone, TBS analyzes the quality of the bone. This gives our doctors better insight into bone strength and fracture risk, especially in older patients with conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. TBS can be performed using existing bone density scan images, making it a convenient and non-invasive way to improve diagnosis and treatment decisions for bone health.
What’s Next?
As health care technology evolves, the goal is simple: better care with less hassle. Whether it’s spotting health trends, avoiding duplicated tests or using AI such as Open Evidence to improve decisions, technology is making medicine faster, smarter and more personalized.
To learn more about Cooper Clinic preventive exams, visit the Cooper Clinic website or call 866.906.2667.
Article provided by Michele A. Kettles, MD, MSPH, Chief Medical Officer and Preventive Medicine Physician at Cooper Clinic.