Archive for month: September, 2021

Everybody wants to move around without any constraints. But when you feel an ache in your knees each time you walk or climb the stairs, your range of motion would naturally be limited.

Knee pain seems to be a common condition among individuals, particularly adults. According to a podiatrist Sunshine Coast residents trust, its causes could range from sprains or injuries to overexertion or an underlying health complication like arthritis. Once it becomes unbearable, you might need to visit a specialist.

Luckily, there are ways you can relieve that sensation and keep your knees healthy over time as well, and one of those is doing some stretches. If you’ve been experiencing discomfort in your knee, here are seven stretches that would help ease it:

Seated Knee Stretch

Extension exercises can help strengthen your knee muscles while ensuring that your joints are in good shape. Integrating your regular workout routine with knee extensions will help you avoid injury and enable you to be more flexible.

Here’s how you can perform knee stretches:

• Sit up straight with your shoulders down and back.
• Lift and extend one leg.
• Hold the position for a few seconds, tightening the muscles in front of your thighs before moving your leg back down.
• Make sure your movements are slow and precise.
• Switch legs, being sure to maintain a full knee stretch (leg completely straight).
• Perform five times per leg.

Kneeling Lunge

Curtsy lunges are thought to be fantastic for developing and conditioning your derrière, which is great for improving your posture. With powerful gluteal muscles, back and knee discomfort may be avoided or alleviated, decreasing your chance of getting injured.

To perform a kneeling lunge, bend your knees and hips to move into a lunge position. Pause for a moment, and then lift yourself back up. Maintain a vertical angle between your right shin and the ground to prevent your knee from pushing over your right foot. Do five rounds of left and right kneeling lunges in a row.

Hamstring Stretch

Hamstring stretches are common exercises performed by dancers, joggers, and sprinters to increase the flexibility of their muscles during their warm-up routines. Aside from that, they can help one prepare for more strength-based knee therapy.

When doing a hamstring stretch, shift your weight onto your right foot with your left heel flexed upward. Lean forward from the hips, and then bend your body to the right. While doing this, straighten your right leg and flex your toes up. A 30- to 60-second stretch should be done around the back of the knee before you change sides. If you’re unsure how to correctly perform these steps, you can search the internet for videos.

Half Squat

A half squat is when you squat halfway down then hold it for five seconds. A stretch like this may be a good place to start for those with knee pain.

To begin, stand with your feet hip-distance to shoulder-distance apart. Lower your body to a tolerable depth while keeping your back flat and your core supported. Push your hips backward, and bend your knees as you lower your body. Push yourself back to its starting position after a five-second pause. Perform 10-15 repetitions. If it’s too easy for you, you can try holding five- to 10-pound dumbbells.

Single-Leg Raises

Exercises like leg raises are beneficial for building stronger quadriceps—the big muscles in the front of your thighs that connect to your knee joints. If you wish to do this movement, begin by performing one set of four repetitions on each leg.

Lie on your back on the floor or bed with your arms at your sides and your toes pointed upward. Then, gently raise your leg several inches while keeping it straight and straining your leg muscles. Finally, before you gently lower your limb, be sure to tighten your abdominal muscles and hold for a count of five. Repeat with the other leg.

Leg Stretch

Leg stretches are also an excellent method to strengthen your quadriceps. They’re done by sitting on the floor with both legs straight out in front of you. Do this with your back straight and while you’re supporting yourself with your hands on each side of your hips. Now bend one knee until it feels stretched but not uncomfortable. Hold that posture for five seconds, and then gently extend your leg out as far as you can, keeping that stance for another five seconds.

Wall Slide

Wall slides are a rehabilitative warm-up activity that improves shoulder mobility and flexibility. But other than that, it’s a challenging quad workout for strengthening the knee joints. However, be very careful not to strain your knees while performing this exercise.

To do this, stand erect against a wall, pushing your back and buttocks flush against the surface. Next, place your feet 12 inches apart from one another and six inches apart from the wall. To slide down the wall, push gently downward, and then hold a 45-degree bend in the knees for five seconds. Finally, return to the upright starting position by gently sliding up the wall.

Conclusion

The easy stretches and simple exercises discussed in this article may help you relieve minor knee issues without taking medication or going under the knife. Keep in mind that your knees are among the most crucial joints in your body’s fundamental structure. So regardless of your age or profession, take excellent care of them in order to live a healthy, pain-free life.

There’s no denying that technology plays a significant role across all industries. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation for many businesses – and health care facilities are no exception. 

Implementing new tech to improve patient care is nothing new – the health care industry has continuously improved its quality of care by using new tech for years. For example, augmented reality helps patients during treatment sessions. 

Whether it’s an older adult with a cancer diagnosis or a child with the common cold, medical providers consider the quality of care they deliver a top priority. Each patient deserves top-tier treatment no matter the physical or mental challenges they may be facing. 

While patient care is a top priority, digital health tech can also positively impact the rising health costs many people worldwide are facing. Depending on the country, the tech could drive 10%-15% savings in health care costs. 

Here are some specific examples of how technology is leveraged by physicians, nurses, surgeons, and other medical professionals to enhance patient care.

1. Reduced Medical Errors

Medical errors are defined as unintended acts that lead to failures to achieve an intended outcome. While professionals in the health care industry work tirelessly to deliver quality care, it’s challenging to eliminate all instances of medical error. 

For example, in July 2021, a patient at the University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center received a kidney transplant intended to be used for someone else. While the patient is recovering and the transplant has not caused harm, the significant error caused the caregivers responsible to be put on administrative leave. 

While the incorrect transplant is an extreme case, medication issues are also considered medical errors. 

Prescribing errors can harm the patient receiving care. Medical alerts, clinical flags, and medication reminders can assist medical professionals when choosing drugs, keeping patients safe in the future. 

Fortunately, solutions exist that reduce medical errors – RightPatient being one of the more effective ones. It is a touchless biometric patient identification platform trusted by several healthcare providers to identify patients accurately across the care continuum – preventing duplicate medical records, patient mix-ups, medical errors, and more. 

2. Enhanced Drug Safety

Doctors are fully responsible for ensuring their patients receive the correct drug and dosage and ensuring medicines won’t interact. Using electronic systems can enhance the safety of prescribing drugs, which naturally improves patient care. 

When patient information is stored in cloud-based solutions, it becomes much easier for prescribers to understand which medications will treat their conditions or disease. It minimizes the chances of miscommunication between prescribers, pharmacies, and patients. 

3. Remote Patient Monitoring

Remote patient monitoring can provide positive outcomes to help patients manage these chronic illnesses, such as heart failure, stroke, COPD, asthma, and hypertension. 

By implementing patient data management systems (PDMS), health care providers can remotely monitor a patient’s condition and interpret gathered data to decide on the correct medical approach needed for treatment.

PDMS technology helps physicians with decision-making and integrates with existing patient medical record systems. In other words, physicians spend more time providing patients with quality care rather than charting or completing paperwork. 

4. Accessibility to Virtual Care

When more people spent time indoors due to the pandemic, accessing traditional health care appointments became more challenging. Patients were forced to weigh the risks of exposure while booking appointments. 

As a result, telehealth apps became more prevalent, allowing patients to visit their doctors via teleconference or phone call. Patients could rest assured that they could receive medical care from home, a game-changer for the health care sector.

5. Improved Lines of Communication

Technology allows physicians to communicate more effectively with patients regarding their medical issues. Patient portals are increasing in popularity, and people can now check their medical records, contact their doctors, and book appointments digitally. 

Patient portals help improve engagement, which can determine the success of outcomes. The more engaged a patient is, the more likely they will receive quality care and take hold of whatever medical conditions they may be suffering from. 

6. Increased Collaboration Among Physicians

Patient care is improved when physicians work together. For example, virtual conferences come in handy if doctors are in different time zones. 

Relying on technology to bridge the gap between doctors is a crucial component of the health care industry. There’s evidence to suggest there’s a significant nurse shortage in the country, so increasing the number of collaboration tools within the health care sector can potentially make up for it.

The Future of Tech in Patient Care

These are only a few examples of how tech is being leveraged to provide quality patient care. More technologies must be used by the health care sector, as many people rely on a dependable facility to attend to their medical needs.

As Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) technologies continue to develop, it’s only a matter of time until new applications emerge in the health care sector. All medical professionals can use new tech to improve the care they deliver to patients across the board.

Betterment and new technology have made health care superior in recent years. Healthcare IT has advanced since the invention of the microscope and ultrasound devices. Furthermore, it has come a long way tenfold during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The advances have been evident with the rise of the aging population, mobile phone internet, and early disease detection. These technological feats spurred education, reskilling, and continuous learning for the medical industry practitioners and workforce. Here are six medical technology innovations that we are fortunate to have at our disposal should the need arise.

Drug development

The invention of several safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in a short time is one of the most remarkable feats in medicine. Pharmaceutical companies collaborated for rapid drug development as a giant leap of faith for humankind to end the pandemic. Medical tests are fast-tracked with the help of online and virtual clinical trials that paved the way for more extensive group sampling. 

Robotic surgery

Robotics has been making waves since the 1980s and has grown exponentially since. In this day and age, nanobots can be injected into the bloodstream to identify diseases. Thus, it aids in both diagnosis and prevention. Robotic surgery has also been paired with laser surgery like the Laser-Assisted Situ Keratomileusis.

LASIK eye surgery is a famous laser refractive surgery procedure to correct vision. It is a common and long-term alternative to glasses and contact lenses. In LASIK surgery, a specialized cutting laser changes the shape of the cornea to improve vision.

Several people find glasses a nuisance, and prolonged use of contact lenses may place an individual at risk of dry eye flares due to irritation and debris. Dry eye flares lead to severe conditions like inflammation. Prescription eye drops such as Eysuvis can quickly relieve the symptoms of dry eye flares. These prescription eye drops can offer a solution to discomfort and chronic pain. Careful diagnostics and assessment are needed to develop a long-term eye care solution like LASIK. Dry eye diagnosis and treatments have come a long way and utilize new technology for eye protection and comfort.

Cancer immunotherapy

One of the most valuable and promising areas of medicine today is immunotherapy. It works by curing previously dead-end diseases like cancer by altering the immune system to target and destroy cancer cells that reduce tumors and their symptoms. 

Telemedicine

Telemedicine was probably one of the good things we got from the COVID-19 crisis. A bulk of healthcare facilities and organizations fortified their telehealth system to address the need for medical advice thru the telephone and online. This advancement paved the way for virtual patient visits to protect against infection and prevent hospital crowding. 

While many experts are worried about issues such as medical identity theft during virtual visits, a touchless patient identification platform like RightPatient can prevent such cases. After scheduling appointments, patients only need to provide a selfie and a photo of their driver’s license – the platform compares the photos and validates the actual patients and red-flags fraudsters, preventing medical identity theft in real-time.

Nanomedicine

The application of nanotechnology in medicine has improved diagnosis, sensing, imaging, and medical logistics procedures. However, the most outstanding achievement to date is the nanotech drug that attacks viruses and bacteria.

Digital assistants

Digital assistants are taking on a significant role in healthcare, highly similar to how Siri and Alexa changed our lives. These digital healthcare assistants play ambient listening and recording and natural language processing in medical data capturing and analysis.

The global pandemic hastens healthcare technological advancements and innovations that ensued promising procedures, equipment, vaccines, and medicines in the last year. These innovations will give birth to better healthcare IT landscape that is beneficial in the post-pandemic world.