The Infusion of Medicine and Modern Technology: Doctor in Your Pocket, Hospital in Your Home

“Illness is universal but access to treatment is farther away from our grasp.”

~Dr Raj Panjabi~

ABSTRACT

This article deals with a body of question: to what extent modern technologies and their applications have positively impacted the practices of modern medicines?

It adds to the ongoing debates on how technological advancements have assisted in many areas of our lives including medicine, still at the very early stages and how future developments will see more and more deployments of technological advancements in modern medicine and their benefits to the humanity.

It also looked into how medicine was practiced in ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome and just to mentioned but a few.

It looked into some of the possible reasons why it is too slow to adopt technological advancements and their applications by modern Medical Professionals: fear of losing control thereby undermining doctor’s authority over their patients, fear of the unknown, resistance to change, the aging demographic of some of our current Medical Practitioners.

It helps the readers to understand that infusion of modern Medicine with modern technology brings great benefits to the Doctors and the Patients alike.

The practice of Medicine had always been part of human developments as the human race has always been subjected to unwellness and various form of infirmities.

INTRODUCTION

The History of Medicine in Ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece

The Ancient Romans, like the Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Greeks, made huge contributions towards Medicine and Health over the centuries.

Medicine of Egypt was “in the hands of Priests” who preached to all the people to perform rituals of deprivation, temperance, extreme cleanliness, washing day and night. Health problems, according to the Priests, were brought by the demons of diseases. The causes of diseases were much more of a religious belief (a demon inside the body of the sick). The Egyptians associated causes of diseases both with natural phenomena (junk food, intestinal parasites, weather changes) and with supernatural ideas (occupancy of the spirit of the deceased person patients of the body). Egyptian Physicians used various types of minerals and animal products in the past for treatment such as common salt, honey, animal dung ointments, Bloodletting, cannibalism, trepanation outdated by the 19^th century forward.

Ancient Roman Medicine was derived from Ancient Greece. It was a combination of some limited scientific knowledge, and a deeply rooted religious and mythological system. The Romans believed in the supernatural causes of diseases as well as the supernatural cure of diseases. The ancient Roman Medicine involved a lot of specializations, such as Optimistic, Urology and Ophthalmology. The Romans believed in the notion that ‘prevention is better than cure’. Medicines in ancient Rome involved the use of herbs, spices and magical spells. Some of the herbs used for medicinal purpose were Fennel, Elecampane, Sage, Garlic, Fenugreek and Silphium. With the fall of the Roman empire, Roman Medicine also decayed, along with other branches of science and technology.

The Greeks tended to believe that most ailments could be healed by prayers to the God of Medicine, Asclepius, and the great temples, known as Aesclepions, were where many Greeks went to seek healing, making sacrifices and prayers to the gods in return for having their ailments healed.

However, this all changed with The Hippocrates, who we know today as “The Father of Medicine”, and also considered to be the founder of ancient Greek medicine focusing on the “natural” treatment to approach the disease.  Hippocrates greatly contributed to modern Medicine by separating medicine from the Divine. The focal point of Hippocratic Medicine is the belief that Medicine should be practiced as a scientific discipline based on the natural sciences, diagnosing and preventing diseases as well as treating them. Obviously, after Hippocrates there was no longer a mixture of superstition, magic, religious views and empirical treatments examined by Priest-Physicians, and Medicine became a real Science.  This era brought about standards of scientific practices and ethics that Medical Practitioners must comply with in their quest of looking after their patients.

As the founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine, he made major contributions to medicine that persist today. His famous and well documented Hippocratic Oath is still regarded as the cornerstone and foundation of the medical professionals today, as they pledge to ‘Do No Harm.’ The Oath has exemplified the fundamental modern ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence and confidentiality. Its foremost message focuses on patients’ best interests.

The Hippocratic Oath has four parts: a pledge to pagan deities, a list of positive obligations, a list of negative obligations, and a concluding piety.

Each section has ethical implications. By swearing to follow the principles spelled out in the oath, Healthcare Professionals promise to behave professionally, honestly and ethically.

Those taking the “original” Hippocratic Oath promise to:

• respect and support their teachers.
• share medical knowledge with others who are interested.
• use their knowledge of Medicine and diet to help Patients.
• avoid harming Patients, including providing no “deadly medicine” even if requested to do so.
• not provide a “remedy” that causes an abortion.
• seek help from other Physicians (such as a Surgeon) when necessary.
• avoid “mischief,” “injustice,” and “sexual relations” during visits to patients’ homes.
• keep patient information confidential.

Physicians and their Allied medical Professionals in ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece have developed various form of healing practices that when weigh on the scale today, they do not measure up to quality standard of care and highly questionable today in the modern Medicine practices.

Can you now imagine what our today’s practices will be in 20, 30, 50, 100 years’ time?

Technology drives Healthcare more than any other force, and in the future, it will continue to develop in dramatic ways. If the current trends continue to progress, they have the potential to completely transform Healthcare in terms of diagnosis, prescription and treatment of patients.

Is it sufficient to rely on traditional medical intervention or should we now explore and apply more on the alternatives?

• Homeopathic
• Bio-Resonance
• Functional Medicine
• Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) harmonizing products
• Quantum Resonance (Earthing/Grounding)

The NHS UK have even now provided guidelines in terms of alternative approaches to medical practices.

These alternatives are not only pertinent for the Clinicians and Patients alike, but they also give the Patients the freedom of choice, how they assist Doctors to manage their own health and destiny.

This freedom of choice is frown upon by some members of medical Professionals as they now feel that they are losing their authority in medically intervening processes of their Patients. And the increasing applications of technology in modern medical practices is widening the fear of such medical Professionals.

Should the medical practitioners be concerned with these developments?

The current Healthcare system is over a century old! Over the last hundred years, despite technological advancement, the care system is still largely using analogue approaches to healthcare even though the advent of new technologies, being more dynamic and exponentially becoming more digital in other areas, has impacted – and increasingly influencing – so many other aspects of our lives, such as:

• The way we eat.
• The way we travel.
• The way we produce and listen to music.
• The way we financially transact across borders.
• The way we communicate with each other … and many more areas.

If technological advancements have improved the qualities of our lives in these areas, does it not make a more compelling case to welcome the increase applications in Medicine and practices? This is certainly a cause for celebrations!

Has the advent of COVID19 not demonstrated the need and desirableness of distance Medicine aided by means of technology?

How about in the case of “Tech-Prescription Drugs” (TPD)?

We are ridden with many diseases and infirmities that the traditional medical interventions are unable to deal with, is it not welcoming to see that non-invasive therapies have been developed with the aid of technologies in order to support our ever hard working medical and pharmaceutical Practitioners in looking after the wellbeing of the people?

Scientists and medical Practitioners have proven the complexities of our human body- Bio, Physio, Emotional, Spiritual….

Thus, one method of intervention cannot fit it all, the alternative, integrative, complementary strategies have been developed the “Alternative Doctors” (ADs). Over many years, these ADs have proven their existence in the current medical establishment, but still fail to receive the recognition they deserve. Why?

I like the readers to answer that but my contribution; is it the case that the formalised system of medication and Patient care must be decided by the select few in the medical profession? Could it also be the case that the current medical narrative must be maintained for the status quo to be maintained?

 For the purpose of establishing the benefits derived from the application of technologies with modern Medicine, we used The School Of BioNatural Medicine, a UK-based organisation, as a case study whose very purpose is to demonstrate how the efficacies and the applications of innovative technology in both traditional and alternative approaches are providing solutions to the Patients. It is not surprising that the UK NHS has provided guidelines in terms of increasing Patients’ choices of having the ability to make choices on how the outcome of their wellbeing to be determined. This approach should rather be viewed by the decision makers in the medical management process as value-additional in the process of dispensation of medical and Healthcare. This also frees up the Healthcare Professionals and their times to focus on their works of treating those Patients who actively needed the deserved medical attention.

As technology paced in every aspect of our modern living who can hazard a guess that our today’s ways of medical and Healthcare interventions will not be considered to be “otiose” and “barbaric” in 20, 50, 100 years’ time? Just as we have seen through the eyes of progress of the practices of Medicines in ancient Egypt, Babylon, Rome, Greece etc.

However, in terms of Clinicians’ delivery of healthcare provision to their Patients, the medical professions have pretty much stayed the same; it is slow, cumbersome and bureaucratic and can no longer cope with modern fast-paced living.

Drawing from the UK’s example, a medically advanced nation similar in other medically advanced nations such as US, Germany just to mention but a few, this presently cumbersome process can take anything from six weeks to any indeterminate time period, which inevitably results in diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment delays due to administratively expensive bureaucratic time-consumption. Such lumbering uncertainty of time frames of efficient treatments can only serve to aggravate the physical pains and mental distress of patients. This is certainly not sustainable and needs to change.

Some research has shown that 60% of patients who visit Accident and Emergency Units (A&E), while in need of some medical help, have no need to go to such extremes to receive help; they simply clog up the queuing system to those victims who desperately needed the immediate levels of emergency services.  People with urgent medical needs often cannot get in to see the Doctor as quickly as they should while people with milder needs may take up valuable treatment time from those who desperately needed an immediate in-person appointment. This research has shown that these 60% of patients who hastily resorted to A&E services can actually be taken care of by means of a remote monitoring protocol that frees up the time of Doctors and other medical Professionals to focus on the 40% of patients who immediately need crisis-levels of A&E care.

The challenges listed above all boil down to the fact that keeping up with technological advances is difficult. Whilst technology has benefited Healthcare in many ways, it also comes with challenges. Medical advances, while saving many lives every year, also push up costs considerably. It is estimated that progress in medical technology, costing some health services in the world at least an extra £10bn a year, can offer no major improvements in the Healthcare system until implemented to their full technological potential.

The stumbling block to this complete utilization is that the current dispensation of services still remains the same as they always have, i.e., Doctors and Patients need to meet physically. We need a Healthcare system that prioritises patients’ actual speed of access to certainties of safety over queue-laden uncertainties of satisfying theoretical and fiscally dependent top-down targets; one that removes barriers to efficient, effective and economical interdisciplinary collaboration with regard to technological innovation and that is so accurately and primarily target-resourced that it will be successfully adopted across health and care systems.

It must be one that resourcefully and creatively optimizes investment allocation to our Healthcare services’ workforces by supplying real-time.

population-demands data. Administrators and Leaders in the Healthcare industry best-case practices must be given the resources to work to address and overcome these challenges so that all patients can benefit from the latest advances in medical technology. Digitalization; Artificial Intelligence; Genomics; Big Data; Robotics; Virtual Reality; Augmented Reality; Tissue Engineering; 3D Printing – as well as countless other innovative tools – are all already in use, but the existing system cannot currently prepare our medical workforce for these growing changes in their working environments if not fully familiarized with the potential usages of these emerging technologies when they start providing Patient care. This certainly requires upskilling education which is demand- driven in terms of time and money.

Remote diagnostic tools and advancing methods of medical monitoring and communications serve to improve the quality of Patients’ care and do so less expensively than under present systems. Electronic health records that allow Doctors real-time access to a given Patient’s complete medical history maintain better care practices; this, unlike the present system, allows Patients to participate in their process of recovery.

The patients need collaborative education in how to become actively involved in their complete process of healthcare and well-being by regulating how their self-monitored lifestyles are impacting on their health and medical conditions. It has been medically proven that lifestyles such as eating junk food, drinking, smoking, and other dangerous habits have direct correlation to our well-being. So, educating the public in the personal health advantages of self-monitoring predictive technologies rather than the usages of outmoded bricks-and-mortar data approaches will go a long way to reducing their exposure to adverse medical conditions.

In today’s world of sophisticated Hospitals with advanced medical technology, all of them staffed with hundreds of Healthcare Professionals but still with waiting rooms brimming – and often overflowing with patients. Historically, when one talked about a doctor’s visit, it was the Doctor who was doing the travelling and visiting. Once upon a time Doctors would travel by foot, car, and even horseback to treat Patients who were too sick or hurt to make the journey to the Doctor.

Back in the twentieth century in-person Doctor visits were very common; as indeed was the popular image of the family Physician, smiling and carrying a trademark black Leather Bag. Those days are largely gone since then, Healthcare has evolved in dramatically exciting ways. Technology has advanced, Doctors have become more specialized, and the quality of care has increased. But gaining access to the benefits of quality Healthcare still depends, as it always has, on connecting Doctors with Patients physically.

However: the modern GP doesn’t have the capacity to travel around to see Patients, so in-person doctor visits just aren’t possible. It is clear, then, that centuries-old approaches to patient care needed to change. Fortunately, thanks to modern technology, the Internet is bringing back the “in-person Doctor visits” in an innovative form whereby Doctors now have the capability to provide care and treatment in the home through video visits and remote monitoring; in so doing they can make Healthcare more accessible to millions of people in need.

For all of us, everywhere, this is a Healthcare gamechanger.

that will save lives by assisting all our medical professionals, no matter where they and their Patients are located, to care for the ever expanding “at-risk” populations of our global community. The certainty of access to means of both getting healthier and staying healthier simply through the use of an Internet connection resonates inspirationally among all demographic groups in all geographical regions.

More and more our emergent remote technologies – whether enabled by a smartphone, a tablet or other specifically programmed devices – are bringing high-quality, affordable, accessible Healthcare to communities across the world. Effectively moving care away from Hospitals and into the home disrupts the redundancy of outmoded time-sensitive queueing responses to main care challenges such as inefficiencies in costs; personnel deployment; Patient-to-Doctor accessibility; real-time accuracy of diagnoses and prognoses; pharmaceutical supply-chain management; Doctor-to-Doctor communications, and accessibility to record-keeping.

Telemedicine services include virtual consultations; diagnostics; prescriptions; therapy; preventative care; remote monitoring … and much more. It is basically the streamlining of medical and clinical services practices, by means of modern telecommunications technology; via an app, video chats or just a phone call, communication is remotely enabled and established between a Patient and a Physician. Gone are the days of rushing to the Doctor or Hospital for a simple cold or minor rash.

Increasing political, economic, social pressures, and international demands on the global Healthcare system to meet demographically rising Patient’s expectations of easy, hassle-free access to medical services without patients having to make in-person visits and also simultaneously to improve the efficiency of care delivery at reduced costs is propelling the integration of telemedicine into the mainstream of healthcare services. Globally, telemedicine represents an important tool for solving the otherwise intransigent challenges facing Healthcare systems.

Its role in the optimization of health resources, the improved management of demand; reduction of Hospital stays and allowing Patients to complete visits in the comfort of their own homes or offices, upsurges the importance of this technology for the improvement of the efficiency, affordability, accessibility, and sustainability of healthcare systems worldwide. The concept of telemedicine is only in its infancy, but as the average person becomes used to its life-saving convenience, without the need to queue up in a waiting room, and feels more comfortable receiving remote care simply by chatting to their Doctors on their Smartphones, receiving instant attention based on data from their medical devices and history, and controlling their own health from the palm of their own hand, it is gaining mounting prominence both in the medical field and the public sphere.

The current tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly signalled that change by the adoption of technology is imperative, desirable and compelling; the numbers involved must compel us to cut down present and potential costs and to set in place pre-emptive response strategies to similar subsequent outbreaks; to invest in strategies that by optimizing present and future targeted supply-chain health-management challenges will reduce face-to- face patient’s pressures on personnel and on their existing resources.

One of the major objections insinuated by the critics of “tech-infused-with

medicines” is about the preservation and privacy of Patients’ personal data: this where the Blockchain figures in the Healthcare system. Blockchain represents an innovative vehicle to manage medical records, ensuring interoperability but without compromising security. It also protects patient privacy, allowing Patients to choose who can view their data thus empowering Patients in a way that has not previously been possible. Additional benefits of using Blockchain for health records include the ability to analyse the information with Artificial Intelligence. This will enable us to determine population trends, which can be used to achieve population level health. The other added advantage amongst other is that this open-source technology enables peer-to-peer consultation between the Doctor and her/his Patient regardless of their respective geographical locations and time of the day. Isn’t that amazing?

The healthcare industry has a lot to gain by intentionally and intelligently adopting technological practices that can improve outcomes. New technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way we manage health and well-being now and in the future. In recognition of the presently pressing human need for an effortless, affordable and cost-effective means of connecting patients to doctors, Medi-Science International, a UK-based organization, was founded exactly for this purpose: to find innovative best practice, ways of dealing with and supplying the global demands on Healthcare systems by striving to determine that all citizens, regardless of their socioeconomic class or geographical location, have access to quality healthcare. Their mantra: DOCTOR IN YOUR POCKET, HOSPITAL IN YOUR HOME.

One of its signature products is the “The School Of BioNatural Medicine’s Global Health and Wellbeing App”, is truly a demonstration of technology that enables proximity by empowering Patients to connect to Doctors, Dentists, and other medical and nonmedical professionals from the comfort of their own homes 7/24/365. This represents substantial time and cost savings both for patients and for their Healthcare providers. It brings about inclusive global Healthcare opportunities for all people in all places at any time.

Mobile technology offers great potential improvements in levels of service thereby providing productivity gains while reducing costs across the Healthcare sector. Mobile applications are used to access and update Patients’ records, to input the results of tests, to monitor Patients, and to provide the real-time clinical information needed to support Doctors and other Healthcare workers. Highly innovative and portable devices are designed to remote monitor, tele-monitor, diagnose and prognosticate health issues, and to monitor infection spread, thus reducing waiting times, appointment queues and face-to-face medical staff to patient contacts.

With the latest technological developments, The School Of BioNatural Medicine now offers Bio-Resonance Therapy an alternative medical method by which, using human friendly frequencies, they are able to discover and measure pathogens in the human body and thus, according to the findings of the diagnosis they have the ability to apply specialised, friendly bio-resonance frequencies in order to maintain and improve the human condition.

This process is non-blood, non-fluid, non-surgical, non-magnetic, non-electrical, and non-invasive and gives medical professionals the ability to see the predisposition of the human body to get infected before symptoms appear unlike other diagnostic methods that can only detect symptom after it has arisen.

One of Humanity’s greatest geniuses, Nikola Tesla, is quoted to have said that: “When Science will begin to look at the human organism in terms of energy, frequency and vibration, Medicine will progress in 10 years as much as it has progressed in its entire history”. The pronounced inventor has been proven correct as modern Science has demonstrated that all organisms (including body organs and tissues as well as pathogens of all kinds) operate with their own unique oscillatory frequencies.

Some of their diagnosis and therapeutic innovative devices have no analogues in the world and can deal with about 2500 health complexes which largely replaced the Medicine Chest. They are designed to maintain and restore physical health & wellbeing; normalize the function of the internal organs; strengthen the immune system; and many more.

The School Of BioNatural Medicine is a proud distributor of Orgonium® range of Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) Harmonising Products. While the rapid increase in technology has created many positive effects for humankind over the last 200 years, it has also brought many health concerns. They recognize that while avoiding new technology is not an option for most of the world, there are solutions to help minimize their effects on our physical and mental health. 

Their EMR Harmonising Products are uniquely programmed to neutralise around 30 different harmful, noxious EMR emissions by producing a negative charge resistance, which is as close to nature as possible. This negative resistance is vital in neutralizing and balancing the positive charge that is produced by Electromagnetic Field (EMF) devices.

Their EMR Harmonising Products have been developed with over 20 years of Intuitive Building Biology Consultancy experience. These lines of products are sourced and infused with a unique Orgonium® Resonance Technology which will last a lifetime because the negative charge does not decay. These full range of harmonizing products have been developed and refined through many years of research, field-tested and proven as non-placebo.

Their passion for health and wellness continues to grow as they are constantly researching and sourcing new products to add to their collections so they can better serve their customers’ health and wellness needs.

A new paradigm of Medicine is approaching. We cannot refute the undeniable existence and importance of quantum physics, but for some reason the medical field has been slow to embrace the revolutionary and important discoveries that directly impact health.

The School Of BioNatural Medicine specializes in QUANTUM RESONANCE CONCEPT (QRC) products with a powerful set of frequencies and information waves that have a direct effect on your everyday health and wellness. Their QRC products are designed to entangle its harmony resonance into any food or beverage.

Truly Healthcare has progressed from the time of Baby- boomers of the 50s and 60s, into the Millennials of the 80s and 90s but now into the Quantum Generation not only to diagnose, to prescribe but now to treat the Patients using technologically enhanced therapies. This is really technology at its best!

Good healthy well-being is a right for ALL people, not just a privilege for a select few to have access to timely, convenient and affordable medical, Healthcare and well-being at any time of the day, at any location, 7/24/365. Be a driver of healthcare and well-being evolution! Life It Is! Live It!