All of a sudden, anatomy is not science fiction anymore.

Your patients are experts at their personal experience; you are an expert on the clinical care and technology can help bridge that gap in knowledge and help improve health outcomes. 

Studies suggest that 30-50 percent of patients are likely to give up treatments early. One of the ways technology can help patients continue their treatment is to understand their issue better. The hand-held medical device called Anatonme developed by Microsoft Research is an innovative way to help patients understand their issue and complete their treatment plan more often.

Not so long ago, if a person had an accident and there was a suspected fracture, they went to the emergency room, and at some point in time, went for an x-ray. The x-ray would be placed in a manilla envelope on their chest as they waited in the hall on a hospital gurney, waiting to be wheeled back to the ER for an exam and diagnosis (at some point in time).

When Henry Feldman wants to explain a white blob on her X-ray, he pulls out his iPad and taps the screen to call up electronic records, test results and images, and massive reference resources in an instant. “I’ll sit on the side of the bed and show patients their imaging results, and then I’ll bring up a perfect drawing of the anatomy, sometimes in 3-D,” says Feldman a physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “And they really respond. I remember one patient saying, ‘Wow. This is the first time I’ve understood what’s going on.’ ” http://health.usnews.com/health-news/most-connected-hospitals/articles/2011/10/31/hospital-care-how-smart-phones-and-tablets-are-helping-patients

Three technologies have recently matured at the same time reaching mainstream status. Those 3 technologies are smart mobile devices (smart phones, tablets), social media and cloud computing. For most physicians, mobile devices are a fact of life, social media is rarely considered as a clinical resource and cloud computing is simply a buzzword.

Yet, the fact that all 3 technologies have matured together is not a random event. Cloud computing enables hospitals in Bostons to share images with expert radiologists in Israel. Cloud computing enables Facebook to serve 800 million users accessed on the Net and on mobile devices and social media used in control private social networking settings has the potential to close the accessibility gap between doctors and patients.

Accessibility is no longer something that needs to legislated in order to enable people with disabilities to be able to get into buildings.

Accessibility to data via social media, cloud computing and mobile devices help physicians make a quicker and more accurate diagnosis and improve the therapeutic process by obtaining updated data directly from the patient and her care givers.

Accessibility helps the patient go from science fiction to science he or she can understand. Better understanding improves trust and increases motivation

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