Introduction In today’s society, there is a wide range of computer use. Almost everywhere you go today you are required to have some sort of basic understanding of how a computer is operated. In my report, I am going to tell you how computers are used in the field of medicine. There is a wide variety of use and need for a computer in the medical field. Their uses include storing patient related data, scanning and imaging the body, and assisting speedy communications. Some of the main points I will be discussing is why Health Care Professionals use computers, where computers are used in the Health Care System , and Computer Assisted Surgery.
Computers are used by Health Care Professionals because they can help increase the productivity. Patient records are stored on computer databases in the medical field. The medical history of a patient includes physical symptoms, diagnoses, treatments, and even family medical history. Details of the medications prescribed are stored together with details of any that cannot be prescribed, such as an allergy to medicine. Appointments are scheduled using a computer. Computers are what health care companies are using to submit, review, process and pay medical claims.
Today more and more health care companies are relying on computers to submit their claims, because it speeds up the process. In the billing aspect computers help with faster payments, accuracy, and less paper. For example the turnaround time for filing a claim via computer is one to two weeks, whereas filing one without a computer could take 30 days or longer. (As cited in Computer Uses in Medical Billing and Coding/eHow. com) Accuracy when billing and coding are done manually, there is more room for human error.
With the use of computers and specialized computer software, computers assist the medical professional by administering stored rules and regulations to the billing process. Computers also save paper, with the use of computers medical claims are coded and filed electronically limiting the amount of paper needed. In larger office and hospital settings, they also control patient flow, keeping track of who is in which room or bed, and which rooms and physicians are available for routing patients. Hospital monitoring equipment is usually based on computer programming.
Patient monitoring equipment is computers that leave the physician free to perform other duties. Emergency alarms, bed beeping systems, pacemakers, life support systems that monitor and look after patients, and X-ray machines are all examples of equipment using computer technology. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computer tomography (CT) use computer software. High resolution images are achieved with the use of computers and infrared cameras. Computers are also used in the medical field for Computer Assisted Surgery (CAS). The most important component of computer assisted surgery is to get an accurate model of the patient.
This can be done like I said previously with a MRI, CT Scan, or Ultrasound. The final objective is the creation of a 3D dataset that reproduces the exact geometrical situation of the normal and pathological tissues and structures of that region. Of the available scanning methods, the CT is preferred, because MRI data sets are known to have volumetric deformations that may lead to inaccuracies. (As cited in biomed. brown. edu/Courses/BI108/BI108_2005_Groups/04/) Computer assisted surgery is the beginning of a revolution in surgery, it makes a huge difference in high precision domain but also used in standard surgical procedures.
There is a wide range of computer assisted surgeries some of them include Computer assisted Visceral surgery, Computer assisted radiosurgery, Computer assisted ENT surgery, and Computer assisted orthopedic surgery (CAOS. ) Computer assisted Visceral Surgery: Laparoscopy in abdominal and gynecologic surgery is one of the benefits, allowing robots to perform routine operations like colecystetomies, or even hysterectomies. In cardiac surgery, shared control systems can perform mitral valve replacement or ventricular pacing by small thoracotomies. (As cited in biomed. brown.
edu/) Computer assisted radiosurgery also incorporates advanced robotic systems. Cyber knife is a system that is lightweight linear action accelerator mounted on the robotic arm. It is guided towards tumor processes, using skeletal structures as a reference system. ( As cited in biomed. brown. edu/) The use of robotic surgery is widespread in orthopedic, especially in routine interventions, like total hip replacement. It also helps in pre-planning and guiding the correct position of displaced bone fragments in fractures, allowing a good fixation by osteosynthesis. (As cited in orthopedics. about. com/od/hipkneereplacement/f/computer.htm).
Computer assisted ENT surgery: Robotic surgery fits most of the surgeons’ needs in areas with limited surgical access requiring high-precision actions, such as middle-ear surgery. The advantages to computer assisted surgery are much better visualization of the operative field, which allows a more accurate preoperative diagnostic and surgical planning. Computer assisted surgery decreases the risks of surgical errors, and also reduces operating time. The surgeon can easily assess most of the surgical difficulties and risks, and have a clear idea if how to optimize the surgical approach and decrease surgical death.
REFERENCES www. blurtit. com/q701804. html www. buzzle. com/articles/importance-of-computers-in-medicine. html biomed. brown. edu/Courses/BI108/BI108_2005_Groups/04/ www. aboutstryker. com/hip/procedures/procedures-computer. php www. medicalbillingphr. com/blog/category/computers www. oslerbooks. com/carrel/kelley48. html biomed. brown. edu/Courses/BI108/BI108_2005_Groups/04/ orthopedics. about. com/od/hipkneereplacement/f/computer. htm www. mayoclinic. org/computer-assisted-brain-surgery./