By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Making Patients With Devices Less Dependent on Doctors
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Technology > Medical Innovations > Making Patients With Devices Less Dependent on Doctors
Medical InnovationsNewsOrthopaedicsTechnology

Making Patients With Devices Less Dependent on Doctors

DavidEWilliams
DavidEWilliams
Share
3 Min Read
SHARE

New Medical Devices Get Smart in today’s Wall Street Journal tells an encouraging story about how patients with prosthetics are gaining more autonomy from physicians. It features a man who lost his leg in a motorcycle crash and has a prosthetic. Used to be whenever he bought a new pair of shoes he’s have to go to the orthopedist to make adjustments to his prosthesis –otherwise he’d have discomfort and an awkward gait.

New Medical Devices Get Smart in today’s Wall Street Journal tells an encouraging story about how patients with prosthetics are gaining more autonomy from physicians. It features a man who lost his leg in a motorcycle crash and has a prosthetic. Used to be whenever he bought a new pair of shoes he’s have to go to the orthopedist to make adjustments to his prosthesis –otherwise he’d have discomfort and an awkward gait. Now he can make adjustments himself using a smartphone as a controller, or even let the prosthesis adjust itself.

Advancements like this have real potential to improve the quality of life for patients and reduce the demand for high-priced physicians and other clinicians. We should keep these innovations in mind as a partial solution to what otherwise could be a shortage of physicians and nurses. The orthopedics industry is actually a good one to look to for such solutions. That’s because orthopedic companies are quite focused on tamping down the demand for follow-up maintenance for their devices. They know orthopedists would much rather do the initial, lucrative procedure to install or implant the device rather than the low margin, mundane work of follow-up. Not only that, if an orthopedist has more capacity, s/he (usually he) can be a bigger customer of the device maker since more time is devoted to new procedures rather than follow-up.

Orthopedic companies are careful not to burden physicians, but there are definitely concerns that providing more technology to patients could lead to more demands on the providers rather than less. For example, with remote patient monitoring patients and physicians can become aware of random deviations and false positives that could compel a patient to seek care that they would have never thought to pursue before. So keep your eye on the device companies –not just orthopedics but cardiac, too– to see how their innovations help patients while decreasing the load on doctors.

More Read

The Key Benefits Of Investing In Medical Alert Systems
Social Media and Technology in Health Care: ePharma Summit Goes Beyond Pharma
Biometric Tools Edge Into Health Care
Boomer Voice: Aging 2.0 Helps Innovators Market to Boomers [video interview]
Who is Susceptible to the Placebo Effect?

 


TAGGED:prosthetics
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

dental care
Importance of Good Dental Care for Health and Confidence
Dental health Specialties
October 2, 2025
AI in Healthcare
AI in Healthcare: Technology is Transforming the Global Landscape
Global Healthcare Policy & Law Technology
October 1, 2025
Choosing the Right Swimwear for Health and Safety
News
September 30, 2025
sports concussions
Concussion In Sports: How Common They Are And What You Need To Know
Infographics
September 28, 2025

You Might also Like

Innovation: Aligning Physicians and Hospitals to Create Sustainable Health Care Delivery

April 22, 2012

Can Medical PDAs Revolutionize Battlefield Healthcare?

February 29, 2016

New Telestroke Initiative Discussion Group Added

May 24, 2011

New Cancer Screening Recommendations Very Controversial

February 14, 2012
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?