Cancer Technology

Cancer/ Technology

Introduction

Technology has enabled researchers to evaluate complex data obtained through their researches in order to come up with a comprehensive report about their findings. It has enabled researchers to access to reports from other experts in order to relate their findings with the existing ones. This ensures that they provide a well supported report by findings which have been provided by other scientists. Computers have also enabled computation scientific data in order to provide organized information which can be easily understood by many people.

There is also establishment of a database which can be used to easily manage all the findings reported by different researchers. This makes it necessary to have technology which can be used to update the data entered during different periods of time. Computers are used to offer safe storage to important information in order to avoid unnecessary losses which may lead to inconveniences in the medical sector. The computer databases can be saved in various computers as back ups; this ensures that all reports provided after successful researches are well protected from alteration or unauthorized modification.

Technology is also used to operate different machines which are used in the diagnosis of cancer hence saving many lives. In order to acquire the necessary knowledge on how to operate these machines, the responsible personnel requires a proper train which is also offered by use of technology. Therefore, technology is a key aspect in the treatment of cancer and management of patient details in order to offer quick delivery of services in the medical centers. This enables patients and medical officers to monitor the progress in their recovery. It becomes easy for them to make the necessary decisions concerning the health of various patients and advise them accordingly. Below are some of the uses of technology in cancer informatics;   

Analysis of Biomedical Reports

Different researches are conducted on the health matters in order to determine the cause of cancer which provides a lot of data. Technology is then used to analyze the data and organize it in a systematic way in order to make it consistent and easily understandable. It can also be used in designing tables in order to accommodate any data which may be intended to be compared hence showing its similarities and differences clearly.

A final report is also generated from the available data and stored in computer databases for easy access by other interested people. It also contains recommendations from the researchers and the necessary precautions which should be taken when diagnosing the disease (Frush D.P., 2003).

Storage of Patient Details

Technology has enabled details of various patients to be stored in their databases hence saving the time which was wasted in looking for the details manually. Before introduction of technology in management of patient details, a lot of time was being wasted in tracing their folders from the shelves which made the process very slow hence risking the lives of the patients. It also led to congestion hospitals due to the slow process of service delivery. There was much chaos arising due to misplaced folders or loss of important data which inconvenienced many process in the medical sector. The introduction of technology enabled keeping of details of patients well, and using them to monitor the status of their health.

Easy access to Medical Databases

Technology has made it easy to search for various medical databases which contain the required information. This makes it possible to access the required data for consultation without wastage of time. The data is organized in the various databases according to its content hence making it easy for people to access it through entering keywords on the computer search engines.

Related data is organized in the same database hence offering a wide variety of information for people to choose from. This provides adequate knowledge for the medical officers about cancer and how to handle cancer patients. It also makes them able to know the necessary tests which are required to be done to different patients.

Operating of machines

The diagnosis of cancer is done by use of complicated machines which are operated by use of technology. This enables quick scanning of the affected parts of the body hence making the necessary decisions on how to administer treatment. Technology is also used to destroy the affected cells in various tissues of the body in order to prevent further spreading of the disease to other parts (Howlader N., 2010).

Training of personnel

The hospital stuff requires training on how to operate the machines which they will be using in their departments. Therefore, due to the limited time which does not allow them to attend seminars frequently, the training can be offered online by use of technology (National Research Council, 2006). The manufacturers of the various machines offer the required information on how to operate them and the precautions which should by taken in order to avoid errors or exposing the patients to more dangers.

Some machines such as the x-ray machine can cause a lot of harm to the person operating it and even the patient if the proper precautions are not taken. Therefore, proper training can be offered online by the manufacturers in order to ensure the safety of its users.

Research on Medicines

There are many scientists who conduct researches to come up with the best medicines which can be used to cure cancer. They all publish their findings and provide online reports which can be accessed by other medical officers for consultations. In case of an emergence of a better medicine on the market, it is advertised and hence enabling the medical officers to access it to determine whether it is advisable to be used to treat the disease.

This decision is arrived at after a thorough research on the ingredients of the medicine and the possible effects it can cause to the body. They can also access at the recommendations made by other scientists concerning the medicine before deciding on whether to buy it or to consider other available alternatives (Mathews J.D, 2013).

Payment Services

Treatment of cancer is very costly hence making patients to carry a lot of money to pay for the services and medicines offered. However, carrying of bulky cash is not advisable due to security affairs hence making it necessary to have an alternative method of payment rather than giving cash. Therefore, technology has enabled transfer of funds electronically hence eliminating the use of cash in many hospitals. This has enabled money to be transferred from individual bank accounts to the hospital bank accounts hence making quick payments for all services and medicines acquired from the hospital. Many hospitals also allow the use of smartcards for making payments which is more secure than giving cash.

Booking of Hospital wards

Cancer patients may be admitted in hospitals for a long period of time in order to enable doctors to monitor their health and administer doses of drugs at the required time. However, some hospitals are very large and they have many wards. This makes it difficult to trace the occupied wards and the vacant ones manually. Therefore, technology has been introduced to manage the hospital wards through creating of their databases. The records in these databases are frequently updated in order to show all the vacant wards.  Therefore, it becomes easy to know the wards which can be assigned to the new patients.

After the patients have been discharged from the hospital, their details are cleared from the ward databases hence enabling other patients to use them. The databases can also be used to determine the wards which require renovation according to the details provided. It has also eliminated the necessity of book keeping which requires a lot of carefulness and spends more time in obtaining the required information.

Data sharing

Diagnosis of cancer requires different specialists to work together in several departments in order to administer quality treatment to the patients. In major hospitals, the departments may be located far from one another hence making the manual transmission of medical results from one department to the other tiresome. In the hospitals, there may be high number of cancer patients who are being treated at the same time hence manual transmission of the results can cause a risk of mixing their medical results (Frush D.P., 2003).

Technology has made it possible to transmit the results easily without making unnecessary mistakes. It has also enabled doctors to save time in treating the patients since there is no wastage of time incurred in delivering of results to the responsible departments.

Access to Public Biomedical Data

Technology has made it possible for the scientists to posts healthcare information through their official websites which can be accessed by all members of public for consultation (Mathews J.D, 2013). Cancer can be caused by many environmental factors which are encountered by every person. Therefore, this information can help many people to avoid these factors. Specialist also recommend on the diets which should be considered in order to ensure good health and avoid the spread of this deadly disease.

It is also useful for hospitals to display information about the services they offer through the internet websites. This enables people to know the nearby health centers which can be accessed for treatment of the disease. Many hospitals lack the required equipment which are used for diagnosis of cancer hence people may have doubts on whether a certain hospital could be offering the services. Therefore, they can access the internet to know the nearby hospital which offers treatment of the disease.

Management and integration of Biomedical Data

The data provided after conduction of various studies need to be organized and updated frequently in order to ensure that it complies with the current findings. The important information obtained from these reports also needs to be put into practice in order to ensure that it becomes useful to the responsible departments. This requires technology in to ensure that all the data which is contained in the specified databases is updated.

Sometimes researches may provide biased information which can be misleading to those who read it. Therefore, frequent updating of the available information is necessary in order to eliminate the incorrect information. The information can also be compared with the other available records in order to improve its content and make it reliable.

  Most researches have discovered different types of cancer which are caused by different factors. Therefore, when managing the biomedical data by use of computer databases, it is easy to add any new type of cancer discovered through the recently conducted researches and advise people on how to take preventive measures to avoid infections.

Computation of Biomedical Data

There are complex reports which are provided by scientists after conducting researches hence making their reports only understandable by medical experts. This information requires computing in order to interpret it into simpler forms which can be understood by all people.

The reports may also involve use of complex formulae and evaluation of data by use of equations. This requires a computer in order to successfully come up with a correct final report. Computer can also be used to determine the likelihood of emergence of another disease due to mutation of the disease-causing micro-organisms.

Moreover, technology has enabled specialists to come up with medicines which can cure cancer by establishing the best formulae to use during the manufacturing process of the medicines. It has also been used to offer a proper artificial environment for storage of scientific specimen in order to be used for conducting further researches.   

Computed Tomography

This refers to the use of technology to scan different organs of the body and generate pictures of the affected tissues. It helps doctors to detect any cancerous growth in cells, to determine the stage of the disease and also for diagnosis of tumors. This technology is also used to help medical experts to plan biopsy procedures and to monitor the progress in treatment in order to determine whether the disease is responding well to treatment.

It has made it possible for doctors to decide the best treatment for their patients since the technology is able to determine the stage at which the disease is (Karn T., 2002). Therefore, proper decisions are made concerning the medicines which should be prescribed to the patients bearing in mind that at certain stages the disease may be resistant to certain medicines. The technology generates images of various sections of the body within very short period of time hence eliminating the need for conducting other lab tests. This makes it possible for doctors to attend to patients effectively.

Advantages of use of Technology in Treatment of Cancer

Technology has brought a lot of advantages in the medical sector compared to other mechanisms which were being used before its introduction. It has eliminated a lot of manual work in various departments hence reducing significantly the possibility of occurrence of errors while handling patients. It has also ensured saving of many lives since before its introduction many patients were succumbing to the disease due to improper treatment. Below are some of the advantages that technology has brought to the healthcare sector;

Quick Service Delivery

Technology has eliminated much of the manual work which was initially done in hospitals hence making the process of transmission of information very fast (National Research Council, 2006). All the data in the hospitals is stored in computer databases which ensures quick retrieval of the required information. This has enabled patients to be attended to by their doctors quickly hence decongesting many hospitals.

Proper Storage of Important Data

All the services offered in the hospitals are recorded in the respective computer databases which can only be accessed by the authorized personnel. This has ensured protection of important data from loss or unauthorized modification which may lead to biasness (Mathews J.D, 2013). It has also eliminated the monotonous work of book keeping in the hospitals which had been faced by a lot of challenges due to misplacement of important folders hence inconveniencing the whole process of delivering services to the patients (Al Moustafa, 2002).

Before introduction of technology, there hospital staff was encountering a lot of challenges in handling folders which contained various documents. This is because in many hospitals the staff members work in shifts hence when a certain staff member misplaced a certain document; it became very hard for the one on duty to trace it. 

The manual process of handling important information was also prone to malicious modification by various members of stuff in order to cater for their personal interests. Some patients could be charged extra amounts of money unnecessarily by greedy workers since they were the ones who kept the records and they could modify them to meet their interests.

Accuracy in Conducting Laboratory Tests

Technology has increased the accuracy of laboratory tests which are conducted to determine various diseases affecting the patients. Before its introduction, doctors relied on use of chemicals and other simple equipment to determine the extent of a certain disease in the human body. Therefore, the process relied on the medical officers entirely and if an error occurred during observation of the results, it was transferred to the other processes hence leading to improper treatment (Karn T., 2002).

The laboratory tests were not accurate since chemical changes could be induced by change of weather hence affecting the results. The process also required a lot of keenness when handling various chemicals since a mistake could lead to incorrect results. However, after the introduction of technology, the process become easy and free from mistakes since most of the critical work is done by computers.

The specialists in various laboratories can conduct successful tests by use of technology since the specimen is stored in a good artificial environment to protect it from bad environmental factors. This ensures provision of accurate results within very period of time.

Shortening of the Treatment Period

Before the introduction of complex technology in the medical sector, cancer patients used to be admitted in hospitals for a very long period of time. This was necessary in order to monitor their health and also to allow some of them to heal after they had undergone surgery. There was also the need of doing frequent laboratory tests on the body fluids in order to determine their health status and know whether the disease was responding to treatment (Berrington A., 2009).

However, after introduction of technology the period of treatment has been shortened since in most cases doctors use UV rays to destroy the affected cells instead of doing surgeries. Moreover, computed tomography is done to monitor the progress in the health of the patient whereby there is no need for conducting laboratory tests manually.

A single machine has been designed to conduct many body tests hence eliminating the need for doing many tests separately to determine how the disease has affected the body. For instance, computed tomography can be used to test body fluids in addition to scanning of various body organs. Therefore, by use of technology, the healthcare sector has improved significantly and shortened the period of diagnosis of cancer.

Discovery of other types of Cancer

Technology has enabled researchers to discover other types of cancer and the causes hence giving the necessary precautions to avoid infections. Initially, many people were losing their lives while undergoing treatment since the medical officers did not have knowledge about the different types of cancer. Expectant mothers who were infected with ovarian cancer faced a lot of complications during giving birth whereby most of them died. The doctors had no information about the type of cancer hence they could not help the patients to give birth safely. When the disease advanced to other stages it caused barrenness to the infected women (National Research Council, 2006).

However, after conducting successful researches aided by technology, experts have discovered other types of cancer hence giving precautions to patients in order to ensure that they do not lose their lives (Backert S., 1999).

Nowadays, cancer is not considered to be a killer disease as it used to be before advancement of technology. Medical experts are now able to treat the disease fully hence saving the lives of many patients.

Disadvantages of Technology in Diagnosis of Cancer

Though technology has helped to improve the healthcare sector in many ways, there are some challenges which have accompanied its introduction. However, these challenges do not compromise the advantages it has brought to healthcare sector since they can be addressed. Some of the disadvantages include;

Possibility of Causing Cancer

Though technology is highly used in the treatment of cancer, it can also be a causative if the proper precautions are not taken. The x-ray technology which is used to scan the infected tissues in the body is a potential cause of the disease.  Therefore, patients should not be subjected to unnecessary scans since it may lead to infection of the disease (Mathews J.D, 2013).

Moreover, the x-ray machines should only be switched on while in use and switched off immediately after the required results have been taken. This is because the x-rays are able to cause cancer just like any other ionizing radiations (American College of Radiology and Radiological Society of North America, 2012).

Therefore, the x-ray machines should be handled by qualified personnel and the proper precautions taken to avoid causing more harm to the patients. These machines should be operated under the recommended conditions by their manufacturers since the can be a threat to the health of all the people around them if they are not operated as required.

Expensive

Treatment of cancer is very expensive since a lot of money is required to buy the necessary equipment and to hire qualified personnel to operate the available machines. Therefore, the expenses are also impacted on the patients who are required to pay a lot of money for the services rendered.

This discourages many people from visiting the health centers for medical tests hence leading to loss of many lives. The opportunity to access better treatment is only enjoyed by the rich people while the poor are left to succumb to the disease (Karn T., 2002).

However, the Government has taken the responsibility to support the less fortunate by funding the healthcare sector hence enabling all the people to enjoy their right to good health. Therefore, though the technology has helped to save many lives, a lot of funds which could have been used to facilitate other development projects are used to equip hospitals with the proper machines and pay hospital bills for the poor.

Requires a lot of Expertise

In order to operate the machines, one needs to have adequate knowledge about the technology used. Therefore, the machines cannot be operated by any other people rather than the qualified ones. In case of introduction of a new technology, the staff requires to undergo training in order to be able to handle it (Howlader N., 2010).

The hospital management committee has to approve funds in order to support their workers to attend seminars for further training. This leads to incurrence of a lot of expenses. However, after introduction of the technology, a lot of work which was initially done manually is eliminated hence saving the amount of money which was used to pay the high number of manual workers (Mathews J.D, 2013).

Conclusion

Technology has made it possible to come up with a cure for cancer which was initially a killer disease. It has supported many scientists to conduct their researches and come up with formulae which could be used in manufacturing of medicines to cure the disease.

They have been able to analyze their data and conduct a series of computations in order to present their reports in a more organized manner which can be understood by many people. They have also been able to up store their data safely in databases in order to use it in conducting other successive researches to come up with better medicines.

Technology has also introduced alternative methods of administering treatment of cancer a part from surgery which risked losing of lives. It has also made it possible for doctors to know the extent of infection and the stage in which the disease is in order to determine the best treatment for the patients. They can monitor the response of the disease to the treatment and decide whether to change the medicines or not.

  Though there are some challenges facing introduction of technology, is has got a lot of advantages after its implementation in all departments. It makes it easy to manage all details within the hospital and protect the confidential ones from unauthorized access. This helps to avoid chaos arising due to loss of important data or biasness of information due to modification by malicious people.

Work Cited

American College of Radiology and Radiological Society of North America. (2012, 04 11). Patient Safety. Retrieved 08 02, 2013, from Radiation Dose in X-ray and CT Exams: www.radiologyinfo.org

Backert S., G. M. (1999). Cancer Treatment. In B. S., Cancer (pp. 867-870). Chicago: Brains Publishers.

Frush D.P., D. L. (2003). Computed Tomography and Radiation Risks: What Pediatric Health Care Providers Should Know. Pediatrics , 950-956.

Howlader N., N. a. (2010, August 12). Seer Cancer Statisics. Retrieved August 02, 2013, from National Cancer Institute: www.cancer.gov

Karn T., S. T. (2002). Technology in cancer Treatment. In A. A., Lancet (pp. 131-130). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

National Research Council. (2006). Health Risks from Eposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiations. Washington DC: The National Academies Press.

Neumann R.D, a. B. (2010). Trackning Radiation Exposure from Diagnostic imaging Devices at the NIH. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Smith R., L. J. (2009). Radiation Close Associated with Common Computed Tomography Examinations and the Associated Lifetime Attrributable Risk of Cancer. Archives of Internal Medicine , 20-24.