How Has Technology Changed Our Lives (According to Biotech, Healthcare and High Tech Experts)

Technology affects our lives, both positively and negatively. It has a significant impact on our way of thinking, communicating, and socializing with other people.

So, how has technology changed our lives?

Impatience has crept into our daily life

Instant gratification is the game – we’ve been conditioned to loathe waiting, especially for digital services, and the impatience has crept into our daily life. We want it with no friction, no barriers, and in a lot of cases, without talking to another human.

If we don’t get it, we are perturbed — and we may just go rant about it on social media.

The masses are armed with smartphones and mobile apps, and this handheld accessibility to technology has made the on-demand economy integral to how we operate on a daily basis. You can have somebody else do anything for you with the tap of a finger — drive you to work, deliver your dinner, and just about everything in between.

Related: How Social Media Affects Communication Skills?

Across the globe, the on-demand economy has disrupted transportation, retail, restaurants, entertainment, employment, and beyond, and it’s growing rapidly as new apps and business models converge to solve problems.

Enabling on-demand information, experiences, and human-machine interactions in the real world open up a whole new realm of possibilities.

We depend on its availability, integrity, and security

Beyond mobile, the rise of IoT technology holds the promise of instantaneous data delivery from devices to other devices or end users.

You (or your home automation system) can know immediately if your door is locked, your sprinklers are leaking, or your baby is crying. The more intimately we weave technology into our lives, the more absolutely we depend on its availability, integrity, and security.

Related: How Social Media Affects Relationships

Access to more information and options

There is a consumer revolution happening in the service professional space. Armed with new technology and apps, customers have access to more information and options than ever before. These new technologies are helping them save time, money, and create a better experience.

Less than two short decades ago, the internet dramatically shifted the power dynamic between consumers and service providers. Phone book listings for professionals provided little information about their quality, reliability or prices.

But, as companies such as Yelp, Healthgrades, and Angie’s List arose, consumers suddenly had access to reviews from other individuals as well as competitive pricing information. It was a game-changer. Service providers with high ratings rose to the top while those that couldn’t keep up lost business and even risked going out of business.

And, now apps are bringing about the next leap in consumer empowerment. While the internet provided information, apps are creating new levels of convenience. A suite of service professional apps is creating one-stop shops for finding and hiring reviewed professionals, tracking projects, and paying for services.

Companies like Uber, Lyft, GoShare, and Heal allow you to hire service professionals on demand. With these apps, you can get a taxi, find delivery professional with a truck, or even book a doctor to make a house call.

Because these apps leverage large networks of service providers in real time, customers can identify and hire affordable, highly-reviewed professionals in less than a minute. These apps can connect consumers and professionals instantly, identifying those that are available for same-day or immediate assistance.

Getting services on-demand is something we may take for granted now. Videos can be streamed instantly. Packages ordered online show up on your doorstep before dinner.

But this speed to fulfillment was unheard of only a few short years ago. And, as more industries begin to introduce these on-demand apps and networks, the pressure for others to do the same will grow.

Anyone doing business the old-fashioned way, with long lead times and delayed scheduling, will find themselves crowded out of the market in the same way those with poor Yelp reviews struggled a fifteen years ago.

Thoughts on EHR

According to a report put out by the FBI, cybercriminals sell EHR information on the black market at a rate of $50 per record, compared to $1 for social security numbers or credit card information. Why are they more valuable? Because theft is more difficult to detect.

Criminals can use this personal information to file fraudulent insurance claims or obtain prescription medication. They can take identity theft to a whole new level and let the rewards play out indefinitely.

Credit cards can be canceled. It’s more complicated to resolve medical identity theft.

One way to counter criminal behavior is to have a detection plan in place. Audit logs will capture data elements such as date and time accessed, as well as user stamps for each access and update made. By keeping a watchful eye on these logs, you can monitor the behavior and look for inconsistencies and patterns. When you notice something that doesn’t seem quite right, you can take action right away.

Thoughts on online scheduling: A time-saver and a nightmare

One of the biggest reasons a patient moves on to one of your competitors is because of dissatisfaction with your website. People have a “get in and get it done” mentality. If they access your site at two in the morning with the intent of setting up an appointment, they expect it to deliver. After all, they schedule their haircuts that way, why not a doctor visit?

The trouble is, not all appointment setting applications are the same. You can’t be wowed by the bells and whistles, without thinking about security.

First, look at security. Even from a fundamental aspect, all web addresses should begin with https to ensure the scheduling vendor securely passes traffic between your site and the vendor’s platform.

Next, make sure it provides proper security to meet HIPAA laws and regulations. How do you know if it does? Ask. To meet HIPAA standards, a program must meet administrative, technical, and physical safeguards. If an application has taken the time to achieve these standards, they will be more than happy to share their results.

Thoughts on Alexa

You might have heard the news that Amazon’s Alexa is now able to handle patient information.

While that might be a step in the right direction to make healthcare more accessible to all, it does trigger questions around privacy and how Amazon will be using this data.

HIPAA guidelines state that healthcare workers can only share patient data with the patient or others in the healthcare system. Amazon is not in the medical business. But because of its new HIPAA compliance rating, it can work with partners who meet certain requirements and start handling patient data. What’s concerning is:

• There is no formal certification process for becoming HIPAA compliant. You can’t go before a board and receive a certificate showing you’ve reached certain qualifications. Instead, it’s more of a self-implemented program.
• Now that Alexa will have access to this data, what will Amazon do with it? That may be Amazon/partner privilege. In other words, we don’t know. Think of Alexa as the voice for these partner companies. Because Alexa provides the voice, information has to pass through Amazon and to the partner to use as it wishes.

HIPAA does require written authorization before using patient data for marketing purposes, but what “marketing” really means is vague at best.

It’s a new frontier with how we handle patient data. And for how we ensure safety and security for our patients. If you haven’t considered how secure your patient data is before you jump in and try new technology, it’s time to look at it from every angle before you sign on the dotted line.

3D printing can transform the way we live our lives

The digital revolution that has occurred over the last 20-30 years has attributed to rapid advances in technology that is affecting the way in which we live our lives.

3D printing has undoubtedly been one of the most exciting developments in recent times and has gradually been changing the way industries from all kinds of sectors operate from manufacturing right through to healthcare. Let’s take a closer look at how 3D printing has been changing the health industry, for example.

Although the technology is still in its infancy, 3D printing is already making a huge positive impact. From tailor-made casts for broken bones to face transplants, there are so many areas that 3D printing is helping with.

You may be familiar with a recent story about an Israeli research team 3D printing a human heart. This is an incredible achievement and it just scratches the surface of what will be possible in the future with this technology.

As 3D printing becomes cheaper and more sophisticated, which it will over time, it will open up opportunities for more personalized healthcare. Organ transplants, prosthetic limbs tailored to the individual’s exact measurements, teeth replacements, skin grafts – the list goes on and on. This will revolutionize the sector in a way that no other technology can and will save more lives and improve the quality of life of millions as a result.

That’s just healthcare. Imagine the other areas of our lives where 3D printing can transform the way we live our lives. There has been a huge increase in people buying 3D printers over the last few years. It’s slowly becoming mainstream, which is only going to increase the technology’s potential and footprint in our day-to-day lives.

Businesses can save time and money

Cloud and SaaS technology has changed our lives by enabling businesses to move away from on-premise solutions to on-demand ones. 

Without the need to go on-site, businesses can save time and money since the cloud enables them to offer solutions remotely. It has transformed the day-to-day operations of many businesses.

SaaS offers many upsides, so companies that have moved to the cloud are experiencing immense growth.

A report by Vanson Bourne found that your business will grow by 19.63% if you move to the cloud. SaaS is a cost-effective alternative to traditional IT-deployment. When it comes to SaaS, some key benefits are:

• The absence of information technology related troubles; users no longer need to buy, install, and maintain any hardware.
• There are no large upfront fees, especially when it comes to additional payments for maintenance and upgrades.
• SaaS offers a flexible IT solution that is compatible with a range of other business tools.

Cloud and SaaS services simplify tech for many organizations and are more convenient since workers can access their work just as easily at home just like they do in the office. Cloud tools can also make it much easier to collaborate with colleagues no matter where they are located, as long as they have access to the internet.

Related: 12 Best Jobs for Introverts (& People Who Like to Work Alone)

Furthermore, cloud computing software solutions are an environmentally friendly option, since they require less IT hardware equipment and therefore use less electricity.

Finding computational solutions to medical problems

Technology now enables us to design medicines on a computer, a process known as ‘rational’ drug design.

By codifying our understanding of physics and molecular interactions into software, we can now find computational solutions to problems in medicine. This allows us to systematically predict new chemical structures that disrupt disease processes in the body by binding to specific proteins.

In the past, drugs discovery was driven in large part by trial-and-error experiments with preexisting compounds. Technology now allows us to design therapeutic compounds that have never before been synthesized, providing fundamentally new options to improve patient care.

Gleevec, for example, a well-known chemotherapy medication, was one of the first rationally designed drugs to be approved and has saved countless lives which otherwise would have been lost to chronic myelogenous leukemia.

Mobile health apps and remote monitoring device have improved the medical process

For instance, numerous mobile apps help patients be informed about different conditions, causes, symptoms, and treatments.

Although this may also be dangerous in terms of self (mis)diagnosing, apps still have a significant role. Most of them nowadays contain reliable information and a number of features that help patients monitor their health.

For example, patients trying to lose weight can follow their progress using diets that are medically approved and some random, weight loss programs which may worsen their health.

Moreover, they have emergency contact information in case patients need urgent care. All of these have helped doctors treat patients with bigger success.

The second item is remote monitoring devices. These range from simple communication tools to medical devices that measure blood sugar levels or blood sugar.

What helps the most is the fact that I can access the data from my office. In urgent cases, getting correct data is essential for proper diagnosis and treatment.

As a doctor, I don’t have to stress whether the patient will arrive at the hospital fast enough for us to do all of the tests. Naturally, these devices can’t cover all conditions but have proven to be of great help, especially in patients with chronic disease.

Of course, there are other ways in which technology has significantly improved treating patients. However, these two things have helped me save a lot of time while achieving even better results.

Technology has had a significant impact on the way we live our lives

For example, Artificial Intelligence is on a crash course with Augmented Reality, especially in the healthcare space. There are many ways that both technologies can be used. For instance, they can be utilized with headsets, or to enhance phones or tablets.

They can equip employees with advanced features like X-ray vision, heat sensing abilities, and faster access to experts. Rather than replacing humans with machines, these technologies provide a new way to enhance the ways that machines and humans work together.

They can improve design speeds and reduce the amount of time it takes for a product to get to market by erasing the need for a physical prototype. It also improves safety and compliance efforts.

A perfect example of how to use AI and AR comes from nurses who use it to locate veins faster and more effectively. AccuVein has a tool which allows nurses or doctors to use a handheld device which scans the patient’s body and makes the vein visible. This greatly improves accuracy and decreases the likelihood of having to stick a patient multiple times.

Consumers now prefer efficient self-service

We are entering the era driven by millennials’ buying power and their sophisticated tastes. Consumers prefer efficient self-service, they prefer messaging over phone calls, as a result, the companies develop chatbots and virtual assistants.

As a result, e-commerce retailers design personalized advertisements targeted for the particular consumer with the help of omnichannel digital marketing software.

Personalization of offers drives companies to employ artificial intelligence not only for price differentiation but also fast and agile responsiveness of customer support service as 25% of millennials expect to get a response from customer service via social network within 10 minutes time. The trend is best described in terms of accelerated adoption of a digital lifestyle.

As a consequence, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things are the hottest destinations for venture capital investments.

Throughout 2018 Blockchain attracted more than $5 billion, AI venture founding hit $9.3 billion and IoT gained $3.3 billion with the record number of acquisitions of 27 in Q2 2018. Big companies see great potential in the startups and we see them partner with tech VC’s to invest and promote promising startups.

Instant service availability

Technology has changed people’s lives in that they do not want to lose valuable time waiting in line or schedule in advance (and canceling and rebooking when their schedule changes).

With Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, DoorDash, GoSpa (West Coast) and Snailz (East Coast) people now get rides, food, and manicures when and where they want them for a reasonable price. Instant service availability is changing people’s lives and behavior by enabling them to make purchase decisions within minutes of identifying a need or want.

Flexible, cost-effective and predictable on-demand services

In the case of transportation, technology has changed people’s lives by giving them an option for flexible, cost-effective and predictable on-demand service with Lyft, Uber and similar services.

And that has changed everything. People are accepting party invitations without the hesitation of worrying about a designated driver. They are walking when they want to get some exercise, with the comfort of knowing that there is an easy option if they walk too far. They are taking classes, attending events and visiting friends in unprecedented numbers because transportation is easy now.

The technology is there for both the drivers and riders which provides easy connection (through the Apps) for matching location and time to fulfill the “on-demand” way that people are now living their lives.

That same technology of enabling people to order food from any number of local places at the time that they realize they want food has been facilitated by GrubHub, DoorDash and other companies.

This has added yet another dimension the realization that we no longer need to plan far in advance for food options. This option frees the mind up from some pressures that are no longer there.

Customers no longer need to make reservations in advance and then, to take the extra step of dealing with it if their plans change (or even if they change their mind about the type of food that they want at the time they are hungry).

This level of flexibility is mentally appreciated by the portion of the population that considers themselves to be busy with many responsibilities and influences that require them to remain as free and flexible as possible.

The salon and spa industry has been one of the last holdouts for meeting the needs of on-demand service.

However, the providers are catching up with what their customers want. Solutions like GoSpa (West Coast) and Snailz (East Coast) provide functionality for providers and clients to get together when and where need and availability converge. This enables busy moms to drop a kid at 2-hour soccer practice and find a nearby nail salon with an available slot right now.

In fact, anyone who ends up with unexpected free time, regardless of where they are, can find a slot for hair, waxing, massage or a mani-pedi without planning in advance. Busy people do not want to walk into a salon hoping for an immediate appointment nor do they like scheduling an appointment in advance.

The stress of keeping track of appointments, changing them and canceling them has melted away, now that on-demand Apps provide available service information.

Technology has changed lives in every way

From the way to eat our food to the way we educate our children. From the way we drive our cars to the way we spend time with our loved ones. From the way we think to the way we network.

We are already thinking about how Intelligent Automation, RPA will not just impact industries we work with but also the humans we interact with and how it will force us to evolve.

I can already see a Digital Worker doing Bank reconciliations, work as a Virtual Care assistant in a hospital and serve as a customer service expert. It takes away the bot out of the human and forces the human to think, to feel, to communicate and collaborate. It evolves us into truly being gregarious animals.

As a parent, it makes one think if we’re preparing our little hatchlings for the future. For we cannot even dare imagine the scenarios our kids will be in a decade from now. Is our education system preparing them for the choppy waters?

All we can do is evolve the educational system to adapt. Take away the stage of where they need to memorize definitions. Your voice search is capable of doing that now.

We hope our education systems evolve to truly ask them to dream. And in this age of big data, ask them to dream big. Dream big while still keeping them rooted in their value systems. And let’s not forget to instill faith and trust in them and in their capabilities to truly achieve.

Teach them to co-exist with technology. If we evolve humans to be insecure and jealous of robots for they are doing the jobs that humans earlier did, we will lead to a failing economy.

Hence, humans need to evolve to work with them. Evolve mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Maybe even take care of Robots like little pets. Like personal assistants who could help me get over my stress of daily life.

In this age of where families are becoming smaller and the number of depression cases is on a rise, maybe a good cup of tea and a daily dose of motivational wisdom from my little bot will keep me going.

Artificial intelligence at your local gym

It’s possible your gym owner is using AI Technology to keep you making that New Year’s Resolution!

The average “family” gym has over 1 million data points about their members regarding demographics and behavior (i.e. card scanning and purchases). Using Machine Learning, a new company MiCoachee has worked with the Data Scientists at UMASS Amherst to crunch all those numbers and predict upcoming membership cancellation by members with high accuracy.

You may find about the same time you are thinking of canceling your membership, you get a call, text, or email with a free class or personalized offer that gets you excited about going again and engages you to stay on track! You have AI with Netflix, Alexa and Amazon to make your consumer experience better now your local gym can help you stay on track by using your behavior!

Steady removal of friction from our everyday lives and interactions

Location-aware technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT) have changed our lives drastically over the last decade, often in ways, we don’t explicitly notice. One of the most impactful changes has been the steady removal of friction from our everyday lives and interactions.

From GPS-enabled outdoor navigation tools like Waze to the indoor mapping of large, complex indoor spaces, our world is increasingly being made more easily-navigable, and thanks to indoor IoT use cases like asset tracking and location-sharing, frustrating experiences are being removed from our lives.

Transformed blue collar jobs into digital “New Collar” jobs

New technologies, seemingly from science fiction, have transformed blue collar jobs in manufacturing, retail, healthcare, supply chain logistics, transportation, agriculture, biotech and many more into digital New Collar jobs.

Across industries, digital literacy is essentially leading to the existing skills gap as the Future of Work has already started and workers have not been prepared.

Up-skilling is required for companies to take advantage of new technologies and education systems must re-think how we prepare people for jobs as 3D Printing operators, warehouse robotic service technicians, autonomous vehicle programs, surgical robot operators and predictive analytics managers.

Humans are going from driver to passenger on the tech bus

Most of my previous career was spent as a typical engineer that happened to be in the right place at the right time to drive the technology bus to where it is today. Among my most obvious claims to infamy was getting the first “smartphone” to more or less function reliably, given the ancient technologies of the 1990s.

I was also involved in early automotive electronic systems, bidding goodbye to what I think was the last PC made in the U.S., the delivery of satellite dish based services to residential customers, and a few things that I cannot speak of.

Yes, technology has changed us, and I’m not sure that it’s all for the better.

The best example I can think of is in my last corporate job, being assigned two graduate students from an internationally renowned “Tech” college (they had been recommended as the “best of the best”) for some routine engineering process work.

One of the most searing memories of my career was having to ask them if they’d had much exposure to math, electronics design, bench work (hands-on building and experimentation of prototypes) and handy dandy nifty keen things like that.

The answer was a “well, sort of” in that technology had replaced much of the thinking that used to be necessary.

Yes, technology is a wonderful thing, but humans are increasingly going from driver to passenger on the tech bus.

Technology is taking over and streamlining tasks

Technology is changing the way the healthcare and warehouse industries are working by streamlining tasks via the use of Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, predictive analytics, machine learning, and business intelligence tools.

These new methods to conduct, operate and run daily operations are taking over less complicated tasks, which leaves the decision making tasks to management.

It made us overcome our possibilities

Technology has connected us with people and with the world around us, reaching remote places where there is not even infrastructure. This has made us overcome our possibilities, discover new natural places before unattainable, and above all, feel safe.

It has not been easy, though. For example, if we talk about geolocation in natural places, there are several challenges that technology has faced, especially in the last decade.

On the mountain or in natural landscapes, it gets more difficult to use real-time location. This is because, unlike we do in cities, we don’t count on local references, such as buildings or streets.

This becomes a challenge when it comes to drawing the location on a map so that it is understandable to the user. Luckily, the cartography and the technology behind maps have advanced a lot. Almost any natural place, peak, or hiking trail in the world is perfectly located on a map.

The second great challenge we have gone through is the connection to the internet in remote areas. This issue prevented, just a decade ago, applications like Wave.

Nowadays, however, 4G is very widespread. We can find Internet coverage anywhere and for every smartphone, so all travelers can rely on GPS navigation and real-time location tools such as Wave, the leader on geo-location.

The third big challenge that we have come across is to achieve high-quality precision when we paint the location of the user on the map. This is for the most advanced smartphones and for the low-class devices that have a very basic GPS. We can firmly believe that there are great differences between them.

We have worked hard to adapt our technology to every software and to the Internet coverage too. Now anyone can load the real-time position on the map.

Why is geolocation so important? We use it not only to find that waterfall that we look for in our hiking trail. We also need it to be able to have the security that technology offers us. We can go skiing, camping, chasing the stars or to a beach full of tourists, knowing that we can always locate our group of friends or be located at any time.

To facilitate this task, Wave provides users with a GPS that takes them to the position of their friends, so they can rescue them or be rescued by them if needed. Nature is sometimes hostile and technology has allowed us to explore it with love and security.

Wave has more than 11 million users around the world who feel safe and connected by sharing their live location on private maps. Download it now and feel safe and connected to your loved ones.

Providing cutting-edge medical technology

We are providing cutting-edge medical technology by transforming nuclear technology to better our world. In fact, we’ve developed a neutron generator that is responsible for producing Molybdenum-99, an isotope in nuclear medicine which provides more than 100,000 critical diagnostic imaging procedures daily.

It’s used for the detection of disease and for the study of organ structure and function. Before our neutron generators were being used, most of the world’s supply of Molybdenum-99 came from nuclear reactors, most of which become less reliable and experience more frequent shutdowns as they approach the end of their life. Furthermore, most of these reactors utilize highly enriched uranium (HEU), which is a nuclear weapons proliferation threat.

We’ve helped solve this problem by partnering with Shine Medical Technologies, who will be operating as many as eight Phoenix neutron generators simultaneously to generate enough Molybdenum-99 to provide more than 10 million people a year with the critical imaging procedures they need.

Technology has enabled us to see the world in new ways

It has made the world a smaller place. Through this, we have seen accelerated learning with various perspectives and techniques being shared effortlessly because of the internet.

Further, advancements in technology have made it possible to explore new cures, process data more quickly and develop new devices that have more diagnostic capabilities allowing real-time learning and continuous improvement.

Another way technology is revolutionizing healthcare is through optimizing staffing.

Burnout and the shortage of availability of providers is no secret from dental to medical. Providers are yearning for fair pay and desiring a more flexible schedule that is less taxing on their personal lives. However, when you work for a practice or healthcare system, you are often subjected to the mandated hours of the owners.

Boon, an on-demand healthcare staffing platform, connects licensed medical and dental professionals to temporary work opportunities. This enables providers to take control of their schedule while earning fair pay. Utilizing technology, Boon can better match providers to work opportunities to arrange optimal patient care.

Technology has provided a wealth of positive changes

Technology has provided the care sector with a wealth of positive changes by designing tools for medicine dispensing, monitoring and control.

Our biggest leap is the use of e-Mar, a system to track medication management. We use this in all of our care homes. It is a paperless system meaning we eliminate the need for hand-written notes and improved accuracy and frequency of note entry for each resident, allowing the care team to have more direct time with residents for their personal care.

The improved reporting system is discussed at Clinical Governance forums, both corporately and at home level, to identify trends and share lessons learned.

Corporately, the organization has been able to achieve transparent reporting which led to a review of their Medication Management Policy, and a new medication competency framework for nurses being developed. The systems allow Orchard Care Homes to safeguard and improve its quality of care, save time for staff and provide more accurate, real-time reporting.

People tend to lean so much on technology

Technology has changed our lives in that we take for granted often the power of the human machine relying on the mechanized one instead!

People tend to lean so much on technology that they take for granted many of the solutions – better ones even are within their own minds and capabilities but they still rely on technology. Technology has become a crutch for most and part of a learned response for problem-solving vs critical thinking skills which are so vital.