Diseases can cause different impairments on their victims. Most of them can render the victims incapable of performing many things in their daily lives. Some of them make them incapable of doing even the most basic activities. As a way of preparing to deal with such cases, stakeholders in the health and social care sector have always made use of technology. Technological advancement tries to consider all the possible impairments that diseases are likely to cause on the human body. Therefore, innovators, usually, create gadgets that can aid almost every part of the body. Such gadgets include ambulation aids, visual aids and neck supporting gadgets among others. Other inventions are aimed at taking care of victims’ security, communication and safety needs.
Security
Technology has helped create many things that cater for the security needs of many people who have been incapacitated to the extent of not being able to take care of their own safety. For example, the alarm can help patients get help as soon as possible whenever they face security concerns. Once they press a button on the gadget, people in their vicinity can rush to offer them help. Apart from the alarm, the invention of the CCTV has helped patients monitor everything that happens around them. They can see every possible cause of danger on their camera. Therefore, they can take necessary actions in good time. In the case study, the woman needs CCTVs and an alarm to cater for her security needs.
Mobility Aids
Patients with ambulating problems also need the help of some gadgets in order to move from one place to another. Those who find themselves in these situations require the help of scooters, powered and manual wheelchairs, canes, walkers and functional electrical stimulation among other devices that make mobility easy. With any of these devices, he/she can move from one place to the other without requiring the support of other people. The GP in the case study ensures that his client has all the devices she requires to independently ambulate. He provides a cane and advises her to see a specialist to perform an ankle-foot orthotics to help her ambulate independently.
Communication
Technology has also made it easier for patients to communicate with their doctors and people who can give them help when in need of it. Due to technological advancement, many channels of communication have come up. They include telephone calls, emails, websites, video disks, voice activation and video conferences. Therefore, patients in need of attention do not need to walk from one place to the other in search of medication. They simply need to press buttons on their phones or computers to pass their messages to their target audiences. They can carry out video conferences with their doctors and show them the exact parts on their bodies that require attention. They can also set speed dials on their phones in case they have problems with their hands. In the case study, the keyboard is designed in a manner that makes it possible for the patient to type without difficulties. She can also talk to her doctors through video conferences instead of going to the hospital. The device that aids memory is also very good at making her communication effective.
Therefore, embracing technology is a very important step towards facilitating the independent operation of patients whose body parts are impaired. It has brought about devices that aid mobility and communication of the patients. It has also created devices that enable them take care of their own security.