Computer Science in Medicine

By Andrew Stevenson

Storing patient information

Hospitals often need to store a vast amount of patient information, as information about each patients medical history could be useful in diognosing and treating current illnesses. Computer science has made this process significantly easier as patient history can now be stored digitally in databases. This allows for much quicker retrieval of information, which can increase the efficiency of hospitals. Computers can also be used to keep track of patient perscriptions, both old and current, which can help give doctors an immidiate idea of a patients health, as well as simplifying the process of getting medicine from a pharmacy.

Embedded Systems

A lot of modern medical systems have embedded computers to allow them to work. Most breakthroughs in medical treatments will use some form of electronic equipment, such as an MRI machine or ECG machine. All of this equipment is controlled by embedded computer systems, and each of these have significantly impacted the medical field.

Big Data

As mentioned above, hospitals use computers to store a large amount of patient information. Big data is a term that decribes vast data sets such as these, which often to large to be analysed by typical data processing methods. Instead we use more advanced methods such as machine learning to analyse these data sets and build better health profiles and predictive models, which can be used to identify people who may be at risk from certasin diseases. Ultimately this may lead to more patients surviving illnesses that would otherwise prove fatal due to the problem being diognosed too late. Read more

Wearable technology

Wearable technology is also significantly impacting the medical field. Devices like fitbits encorage the wearer to be more active, which can reduce the risk of certain diseases. Some devices however, such as the apple watch series 4, go further and use the in built technology, such as heartrate monitors, to attempt to identify certain illnesses. For example, the apple watch series 4 will monitor the users heart rate and let them know if it is unusually high or low. It also has a built in sensor to detect if the wearer falls and gives them the option to start an emergency call.