The advancement of technology has continued to make huge breakthroughs for medicine, Improving the quality of care and treatments that patients receive in hospitals world wide. This has been made possible by the incredible upgrades that have been made to diagnostic medical devices and improvements to treatments by using advanced medical devices. These improvements in medical equipment have allowed medical professionals such as Doctors, Nurses and x-ray technicians to diagnose and treat patients more effectively. Without the huge advancements in technology that have been made, many of the treatments and diagnostic medical devices available today would not be possible.
The improvement of Diagnostic medical equipment such as X-ray machines, UltraSound machines, and CT machines have continued to help Radiologist become more and more effective in diagnosing injuries whether they are fractures, internal bleeds or life threatening diseases such as cancer. The use of devices that are able to diagnose illnesses and diseases through imaging continue to increase every year. “The number of scans carried out by the NHS rises annually” (Thomas 1), these diagnostic imaging machines are become more and more advanced allowing Radiologist to continue to diagnose more and more diseases at a much more accurate rate.
Whether its from an x-ray, CT scan, MRI, or ultrasound, each diagnostic scan has its strengths in allowing doctors to detect illnesses at a much earlier stage. However, like everything in life many of them do have their risk to the patient as well. While CT and MRI scans both are known to be extremely accurate in detecting life saving injuries and illnesses, they do come at a price. While CT scans are known for their quick scans that are able to determine life threatening bleeds or injuries, they are also known to give off massive amounts of radiations. This is because a CT scan essentially consists of what can be hundreds of x-rays that are taken on a small to medium area of the body so that a detailed image of that area can be produced slice by slice. Therefore, while it may be essential to detect a critical injury such as a brain bleed, it makes complete sense that receiving constant CT scans to an area of the body could definitely do some serious harm over time if the scans are overdone.
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Then we have MRI scans which are known to take pictures without using radiation due to the imaging coming from the constant spinning of a magnet within the machine, it also does not come without its risks. Admittedly, If the proper imaging is not taking on a patient who could possibly have any metal in their body isn’t taken prior to the MRI scan, there is the risk of the machine relentlessly tearing it out of the body. The magnet inside these MRI machines is so powerful that no matter how big the piece of metal is, no metal is allowed several feet from the machine because if it is metal the machine will absolutely pull it inside to the machine possibly causing harm to the tech and patient, as well as absolutely causing damage to the machine itself. Furthermore, While these diagnostic imaging tools have been critical in improving patient care, it is extremely important they are performed correctly so that no harm is caused to the patient during a procedure, or later in their life.
The improvement to diagnostic equipment has been able to lead towards the inventions of tools that were never possible before, like the new diagnostic tool that dermatologist have used to accurately diagnose cancerous skin cells at a rate that is way too accurate for even the best dermatologist to match. The invention of such a tool, is critical to fighting off skin cancer in a much more effective manner. The invention of this machine has allowed doctors to make a huge increase from “on average ,human dermatologists accurately detected 86.6% of skin cancers from the images, compared to 95%” (Presse 1). While this 9 percent increase in the diagnosis of skin cancer might not some that much better, it is definitely a substantial improvement. With the use of this skin cancer detecting machine, Dermatologist could be nearly perfect in diagnosing any source of skin cancer in a patient and this is the first development of such a machine.
They could possibly even make improvements to this machine in the future, allowing dermatologist to possibly be 100% effective in detecting skin cancer. This could save hundreds of thousands of lives around the world. The use of this new and diagnostic machine could also allow dermatologist detect skin cancer in patients earlier and that could even increase the survival rate of patients with skin cancer, there are way too many times were a patient is diagnosed way too late with skin cancer, giving them no chance at survival when they could have possibly had a fighting chance if it had been detected earlier. However, like any other device that is dependent on technology, there is always the chance that a person might be misdiagnosed or not be diagnosed due to a malfunction of the device. Admittedly, that would be devastating for a patient to not be diagnosed with it due to a malfunction. Therefore, The device might have to be used in conjunction with the traditional test of a doctor physically searching for cancerous skin lesions in order to ensure a mistake is not made and a diagnosis is not missed. It might seem a little extra to use both methods of testing but if taking an extra few minutes to do the second test saves more lives, it is absolutely worth it. There is no price too expensive when it comes to the saving of someone’s life.
Along with the improvements to diagnostic medical tools, medical professionals also been able to use other new medical devices to improve the surgical techniques they are now using, with new and improved surgical techniques doctors are able to increase patient safety during surgeries and reduce the risk of infection and fatal complications. For instance, Doctors in Canada were able to use a new and improved surgery that had never been done before to save the life of a woman with a lung infection that was killing her as she waited for a lung transplant. This was achieved when “ In mid-April, a team of 13 began a nine-hour surgery to remove Benoit’s lungs.
Filled with mucous each lung was and as hard as a football” (Kassam 1). In other words, This was an extremely difficult and risky surgery to complete, even with a group of 13 surgeons. However, After completing the surgery, “ Hours later, her condition began to dramatically improve. “And literally within minutes – it was probably around 20 minutes after having taken those infected lungs out – her blood pressure normalised, and they could remove all the blood-pressure-supporting drugs and just leave her on the pumps that were providing the circulation” (Kassam 1). Doctors were then able to attach a medical device that acted as an artificial heart in order to keep her alive and stable until a transplant became available and then start her road to recovery. Furthermore, without the medical advancements that have been made in recent times, this first ever life saving surgery would have been impossible.
Although it is true that, this surgery was extremely dangerous and had never been done which could have lead to complications that doctors knew would be fatal. Therefore. Doctors were extremely concerned about the possibility of “ the risk of bleeding into the empty chest cavity to whether her blood pressure and oxygen levels could be sustained once her lungs were removed” (Kassam 1) which certainly would have been catastrophic and fatal. However, her doctors knew that they had the medical devices and knowledge needed to possibly successfully perform this surgery. Without this risk Mrs. Benoit would have almost certainly passed away. The 13 Doctors who performed her life saving and extremely dangerous surgery knew that it was now or never, they could save her life by performing this extremely dangerous surgery or simply wait for the inevitable. They took the risk and with the amazing medical devices they had available such as the temporary replacement lung, and advanced surgery techniques, They were able to save this woman’s life.
To summarize, as technology continues to progress and advanced all around the world, these advances continue to make huge impacts on the medical field. These continued technological advances continue to help medical personnel and doctors around the world develop medical devices and procedures that allow doctors to make more advances to help treat people back to health from injuries and diseases that many years ago were deemed to be a inevitable death. Admittedly, many of these surgical procedures and medical devices have their risks as well, but sometimes taking these risks is the only way to save a life and that is why there are highly educated individuals who become Doctors and study for many years so that they are able to make educated decisions on when these risks need to be taken. Without the development of these technologically advanced medical devices and procedures, it would be impossible to perform thousands of these life saving procedures around the world that are now possible.
