Medical+Automation+Technology

=Medical Automation Technology=

Description:
Medical automation technology is a technological field that encompasses multiple areas closely associated with health information technology. The field is defined as biomedical technology that can control or operate diagnostic and therapeutic machinery through electromechanical energy(Felder, 2009). The benefit of implementing medical automation technology is increasing the efficiency of hospitals and significantly reducing human error. Some examples of medical automation technology include monitoring technologies, health diagnostics, medical image analysis, computer aided surgical equipment, HIT logistics, and patient monitoring. Currently, the demand for medical automation technology is increasing with the market to jump from 13.1 billion dollars to 23.2 billion dollars in 2014 (Monegain, 2015). As healthcare costs continue to rise in the U.S., medical automation technology will be relied upon more and more as means to make more common medical practices cost efficient.

Applications:
In the medical sector, the applications market for medical automation technology is generally separated into categories that focus on diagnostics automation, therapeutic automation, pharmaceutical automation, and personnel training. The diagnostics field contains automated technologies that help diagnose a patient or obtain lab results more efficiently. This includes technology such as radiography, endoscopic capsules, and automated image analysis. These technologies not only help correctly diagnose a patient, but reduces the production time since the technologies operate at a rate exponentially faster than technicians(Saul, Sharrer, 2015). Therapeutic automation's encompasses devices that provide therapy to a patient such as regulating a physiological process. Some of the major examples being used today are automated defibrillators, implantable drug pumps, and wearable drug pumps. Pharmaceutical automation technologies are being used in the industry today to help process and check patients prescription orders. Some of these machines are able to generate 150 prescriptions an hour with accuracy of 99.7%(Coughlin, 2011). The final application field, personnel training, is automation technology that helps train medical staff more efficiently than conventional methods. Usually this entails software programs that automate scenarios and situations that a medical employee will encounter and aids them in learning the appropriate solution to solve it. In terms of health informatics, applying medical automation technology in a hospital brings a more stable structure to the facility by increasing the efficiency and productivity of algorithmic routines that happen on a day to day basis.

Market Drivers:
The primary factors propelling the success of medical automation technologies is the increasing efficiency and re-liability of them. As labor costs for medical facilities continue to rise, more and more hospitals are relying on medical automated technologies to accomplish daily procedures and properly recording and organizing patient information. In addition, the market has seen increased government interest and investment with sectors funding for research and development.


 * Medical Automation Market, by geography 2013**

Web Resources:
[|M.A.T Marketing Report] [|Automated Prescription Example] [|Future of MAT(Video)] [|Medical Automation Webinar (Video)] [|Benefits of MAT]

Related Terminology:
Pharmacy Automation- a combination of mechanical and computational processes to fill out a patients prescription through a computer. Therapeutic Automation- the process of automating algorithmic health procedures or equipment such as a drug pumps or heart defibrillators.

References/Citations:
Felder, Jim. "Medical Automation About." //Medical Automation: Healthcare for the Future//. MedicalAutomation.org, 16 May 2008. Web. 29 Oct. 2015. Monegain, Bernie. "Medical Automation Market Expected to Grow to $23.2B to 2014." //Healthcare IT News//. Healthrecare IT News, 8 Sept. 2009. Web. 29 Oct. 2015. Saul, Rick, and Terry Sharrer. "Global Medical Automation Technologies Market Outlook (2014-1022)." //General Medical Device Reports//. Global Medical Technologies, 20 May 2015. Web. 29 Oct. 2015. Coughlin, Michael. "Robotic Prescription Dispensing Systems." //Medical Robotics// (2011): 1-9. //Script Pro//. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.