Article #1
Source: Washington University in St. Louis. Retrieved from http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse574-08/ftp/medical/
Summary: The article was about the use of wireless technology in the medical field. It has grown to become part and parcel of medical practitioners. With a broad range of capabilities, wireless technology has not only impacted how hospitals run but also how doctors administer treatment to their patients. Apart from having its merits, wireless technology in the medical sector can be disadvantageous as well.
In operations, wireless technology has proven handy as it has enabled doctors to remotely monitor their patients as they note even the slightest change that may occur, hence taking timely actions. To get these signs, the patient is fitted with adhesive electrodes which will transmit the signs over wires to a display monitor. For example, devices such as Smartpad are mostly used by doctors to monitor their patients (Ngoc, 2008).
Moreover, wireless technology has made inside-body monitoring possible. For instance technologies such as Capsule Endoscope which is a control device and WBAN which is used to transmit information from the monitoring device to the outside can be used for monitoring internal body organs such as the intestines, making this information readily available for doctors to work on.
However, as much as the wireless innovations are beneficial in the medical sector, it also faces challenges from either in its deployment or reliability. In any health care systems, different equipment are used for various purposes hence these devices operate differently and ensuring these devices work smoothly at all times for the system to last can be a big challenge for many. Also, another problem may arise as a result of deployment such as battery exhaustion since most of these devices are battery based.
Comments:I thought the article was very informative on the use of wireless technology in the medical field. With the fast pace of innovations, there are more and more technological solutions that are yet to come. More so, the future of medicine will rely so much on technology, especially wireless technology, to a point that it will be difficult to perform some tasks the traditional way. Some argue that some medical practitioners may be replaced by technology (Lai, Begg, & Palaniswami, 2012).
Therefore having wireless technology in the medical area can be advantageous as well as disadvantageous. Technology is useful as it improves the patient-doctor efficiency and consequently making medical services available anywhere at any time. Nonetheless, it still faces challenges as well.
References
Lai, D., Begg, R., & Palaniswami, M. (2012). Healthcare sensor networks. Boca Raton: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group.
Ngoc, T. V. (2008). Medical Applications of Wireless Networks. Washington University in St. Louis. Retrieved from http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse574-08/ftp/medical/
