The history of health care technology starts with Rene Laënnec, a French physician. For centuries, doctors listened to patients’ hearts by putting their ear to the chest. One day in 1816, Laënnec was called to the bedside of a young woman and, because of her gender, he was reluctant to do that.
He remembered seeing two children sending each other signals through a wooden tube and voila! — the stethoscope was born. Since then, the march of technology in health care has never really slowed. Today, groundbreaking advancements are revolutionizing patient care and the health care industry.
Many of these advances are driven by artificial intelligence (AI). Yes, it’s getting a lot of negative attention in the media, but the health care industry generates so much data every single day that AI is the only way for providers and researchers to glean useful insights, and quickly.
Let’s look at just a few of these advancements — some that are already here and some that are still coming.
