How Smart Technology in the USA is Improving Efficiency in Healthcare

Smart technology in healthcare marks is set to make a significant improvement in patient care. In the US, advancements in digital health technologies such as AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), telehealth, and wearable devices are already revolutionizing how healthcare providers approach diagnosis, treatment, and patient management.

According to recent studies, medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States causing up to 251,000 deaths annually. Thankfully, these digital health trends will diminish human errors, enhance the quality of care, streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve access to healthcare services across the population.

As the healthcare industry embraces these exciting innovations, understanding the role and impact of smart technology is essential in every area, from audiology and eye care to dental and diagnostics.

The Role of Smart Technology in Healthcare

Hospitals worldwide are suffering from staff shortages and lack of treatment access. Advanced digital tools and systems will tackle these issues by leveraging data, connectivity, and automation to improve healthcare delivery and, ultimately, patient outcomes. These technologies have various applications, from electronic health records and telemedicine to wearables and AI-powered diagnostic tools. Thanks to the power of these innovations we’re about to see a more equitable society with personalized, efficient, and effective healthcare for all.

Telehealth and telemedicine

The rise of telehealth and telemedicine has been one of the most significant shifts in healthcare delivery, especially during the pandemic. Patients can receive medical consultations and follow-up care remotely, significantly expanding access to healthcare services, particularly for individuals in rural or underserved areas.

Wearable health monitoring devices

Wearables such as fitness trackers, glucose monitors, and smartwatches enable continuous monitoring of health metrics in real-time. These devices are typically worn by people with chronic diseases and studies show that 30% of hospital visits by patients with common conditions are unnecessary. Luckily, ongoing monitoring can alert healthcare providers to potential health issues before they become serious, allowing for proactive management of chronic conditions and overall health without overwhelming hospitals.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning

AI in healthcare offers exceptional precision in diagnostics, treatment plan development, and even in predicting patient outcomes. The benefits of AI in healthcare include analyzing vast amounts of data to identify patterns and insights that would be difficult for humans to discern, leading to more accurate diagnoses and personalized treatment plans.

Blockchain in healthcare

Blockchain technology enhances the security, privacy, and efficiency of health data exchange. Providing secure records of transactions, blockchain can facilitate a transparent and reliable exchange of medical information among healthcare providers, payers, and patients.

Electronic health records

Fast and accurate data access has transformed how patient records are stored, accessed, and used across the healthcare system. By digitizing these records, healthcare providers no longer have to waste time sourcing and authenticating patient information, facilitating better-informed decision-making and more coordinated care.

Benefits of Smart Technology in Healthcare

Thanks to smart technology, the world is becoming more advanced in many areas – including the healthcare industry. Patients and healthcare workers alike can enjoy a multitude of benefits, including efficient and effective medical services. With improved patient care and optimized everyday operations, these benefits lead to significant cost savings and increased satisfaction overall.

Fast, efficient operations

AI in healthcare provides better administrative and clinical processes, reducing the time and resources typically required for routine tasks. Electronic health records, for example, have eliminated paper documentation, making patient data easily accessible and shareable among healthcare professionals. The automation of scheduling, billing, and inventory management also reduces administrative strain, giving medical staff more time to focus more on patient care. Another way healthcare providers can minimize costs and maximize efficiency is by monitoring overall equipment effectiveness. OEE assesses the effectiveness of medical equipment and technologies, ensuring they are available, reliable, and performing at their optimal capacity. By monitoring and improving OEE, healthcare facilities can reduce equipment downtime, enhance patient care, decrease delays in diagnosis or treatment, and ensure a higher return on investment in medical technology.

Improved patient care and satisfaction

Access to healthcare is something that the world has struggled with for decades. But thanks to telehealth services and wearable health monitoring devices, providers can now give personalized patient care outside of traditional clinical settings. Quality of care, increased patient engagement and satisfaction are some benefits of AI in healthcare, providing patients with greater control over their health and well-being. While trained human healthcare workers offer excellent services, smart technology can greatly enhance them. AI-driven diagnostics and treatment produce high-degree precision and personalization, leading to better health outcomes.

Reduced healthcare costs

One of the barriers to receiving correct, quality healthcare is finances. Luckily, smart technology is significantly reducing healthcare costs in many ways. For instance, telehealth decreases the need for in-person visits, saving money for healthcare providers and patients. Predictive analytics and real-time health monitoring can prevent costly emergency interventions by identifying potential health issues before they escalate. Plus, AI and machine learning optimize resource allocation, ensuring that healthcare services are delivered more cost-effectively.

Improved accuracy in diagnostics

Traditionally, coming to an official diagnosis can take a long time due to inspecting data and cross-examinations. Sometimes, this can lead to inaccuracies or late diagnosis with little room for treatment. Fortunately, AI in healthcare and machine learning algorithms can easily analyze large amounts of medical data with incredible accuracy and speed, outperforming the usual methods we use to identify diseases and predict outcomes. For instance, AI algorithms can more accurately interpret imaging results, leading to earlier and more precise diagnoses of conditions like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological disorders. Using this accurate data, healthcare providers can plan personalized treatments and provide better overall patient care.

Challenges and Considerations

While smart technology in healthcare brings many advantages, it also presents some challenges. Privacy and security concerns are critical, as the increased digitization of health information raises the risk of data breaches. Ensuring the equitable distribution of these technologies is crucial to avoid widening the health disparity gap. But, there’s a need for comprehensive training for healthcare professionals to adapt to these new technologies effectively. Overcoming these barriers requires thoughtful policy-making, strong security measures, and ongoing education.

Optimizing Healthcare

As digital trends suggest, smart technology will boost efficiency in the USA by improving every area of healthcare, from diagnostics to disease prevention. Despite challenges, the potential benefits are vast and exciting. To learn more about smart technology in healthcare and other industries, speak to our professional team at Mantra Labs for more information today.

Published on Nov 13, 2024

Let’s take a trip back in time—2008. Netflix was nothing like the media juggernaut it is today. Back then, they were a DVD-rental-by-mail service trying to go digital. But here’s the kicker: they hit a major pitfall. The internet was booming, and people were binge-watching shows like never before, but Netflix’s infrastructure couldn’t handle the load. Their single, massive system—what techies call a “monolith”—was creaking under pressure. Slow load times and buffering wheels plagued the experience, a nightmare for any platform or app development company trying to scale

That’s when Netflix decided to do something wild—they broke their monolith into smaller pieces. It was microservices, the tech equivalent of turning one giant pizza into bite-sized slices. Instead of one colossal system doing everything from streaming to recommendations, each piece of Netflix’s architecture became a specialist—one service handled streaming, another handled recommendations, another managed user data, and so on.

But microservices alone weren’t enough. What if one slice of pizza burns? Would the rest of the meal be ruined? Netflix wasn’t about to let a burnt crust take down the whole operation. That’s when they introduced the Circuit Breaker Pattern—just like a home electrical circuit that prevents a total blackout when one fuse blows. Their famous Hystrix tool allowed services to fail without taking down the entire platform.

Fast-forward to today: Netflix isn’t just serving you movie marathons, it’s a digital powerhouse, an icon in platform engineering; it’s deploying new code thousands of times per day without breaking a sweat. They handle 208 million subscribers streaming over 1 billion hours of content every week. Trends in Platform engineering transformed Netflix into an application dev platform with self-service capabilities, supporting app developers and fostering a culture of continuous deployment.

Did Netflix bring order to chaos?

Netflix didn’t just solve its own problem. They blazed the trail for a movement: platform engineering. Now, every company wants a piece of that action. What Netflix did was essentially build an internal platform that developers could innovate without dealing with infrastructure headaches, a dream scenario for any application developer or app development company seeking seamless workflows.

And it’s not just for the big players like Netflix anymore. Across industries, companies are using platform engineering to create Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)—one-stop shops for mobile application developers to create, test, and deploy apps without waiting on traditional IT. According to Gartner, 80% of organizations will adopt platform engineering by 2025 because it makes everything faster and more efficient, a game-changer for any mobile app developer or development software firm.

All anybody has to do is to make sure the tools are actually connected and working together. To make the most of it. That’s where modern trends like self-service platforms and composable architectures come in. You build, you scale, you innovate.achieving what mobile app dev and web-based development needs And all without breaking a sweat.

Is Mantra Labs Redefining Platform Engineering?

We didn’t just learn from Netflix’s playbook; we’re writing our own chapters in platform engineering. One example of this? Our work with one of India’s leading private-sector general insurance companies.

Their existing DevOps system was like Netflix’s old monolith: complex, clunky, and slowing them down. Multiple teams, diverse workflows, and a lack of standardization were crippling their ability to innovate. Worse yet, they were stuck in a ticket-driven approach, which led to reactive fixes rather than proactive growth. Observability gaps meant they were often solving the wrong problems, without any real insight into what was happening under the hood.

That’s where Mantra Labs stepped in. Mantra Labs brought in the pillars of platform engineering:

Standardization: We unified their workflows, creating a single source of truth for teams across the board.

Customization: Our tailored platform engineering approach addressed the unique demands of their various application development teams.

Traceability: With better observability tools, they could now track their workflows, giving them real-time insights into system health and potential bottlenecks—an essential feature for web and app development and agile software development.

We didn’t just slap a band-aid on the problem; we overhauled their entire infrastructure. By centralizing infrastructure management and removing the ticket-driven chaos, we gave them a self-service platform—where teams could deploy new code without waiting in line. The results? Faster workflows, better adoption of tools, and an infrastructure ready for future growth.

But we didn’t stop there. We solved the critical observability gaps—providing real-time data that helped the insurance giant avoid potential pitfalls before they happened. With our approach, they no longer had to “hope” that things would go right. They could see it happening in real-time which is a major advantage in cross-platform mobile application development and cloud-based web hosting.

The Future of Platform Engineering: What’s Next?

As we look forward, platform engineering will continue to drive innovation, enabling companies to build scalable, resilient systems that adapt to future challenges—whether it’s AI-driven automation or self-healing platforms.

If you’re ready to make the leap into platform engineering, Mantra Labs is here to guide you. Whether you’re aiming for smoother workflows, enhanced observability, or scalable infrastructure, we’ve got the tools and expertise to get you there.

How Smart Technology in the USA is Improving Efficiency in Healthcare