Technology in the New Year | Health & Wellness This Week

This article is part of ParkerWhite’s weekly series, “Health and Wellness This Week,” a roundup of the latest healthcare marketing news and what it means for your marketing strategy.This week, we look at the merge of engineering and medicine bringing quicker technological advances to patients, how UV helps hospitals fight infections, and keeping your New Years resolutions alive.

This week in health and wellness:

• A new year, a new… health ecosystem?
• Robotic cleanliness brings UV energy into hospital rooms, reducing infections.
• The one trick to keeping your 2015 resolutions in check and achieving your goals.

Campus docs and engineers forge new path to innovation and profits

‍Cognitive diversity is becoming a common phrase within the new university setting. A collaboration of engineering and medical schools is now bringing fresh approaches to solving current healthcare demands and unmet medical needs. The demands for solving these big problems is great as the need to improve medical processes and develop new technologies is high, and a fresh way of providing solutions to problems in medicine is needed. The combination of universities with medical and engineering schools will provide solutions in this new way of thinking and approach to releasing newer technologies, faster.The National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences foresees spending the majority of their $635 million budget this year alone in assisting in medical and bioengineering scientists to bring new technology to a patient’s bedside.Maninder “Mini” Kahlon, Dell Medical School’s Vice Dean for Partnerships and Strategy feels “The word we like to use is ‘ecosystem.’ Our focus is on enabling an entire ecosystem to improve health.”

‍Marketing Strategy Insights

• Dual degree students will provide new approaches and solutions to current problems in medicine by developing new medical technologies.
• New approach to cognitive problem solving creates new educational facilities.
• Funding by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences will move placement of these advances to a patient’s bedside, faster.

The robot will clean up now: More hospitals buying automated systems to reduce infections

‍By removing elements of human error that can cause risks of infections and higher infection rates acquired in hospitals, Xenex has created a UV system to sanitize operating rooms, ICUs, and burn units. This will assist in not only removing infectious carriers, but also reducing payment cuts due to abundant amounts of patients whom receive an infection while in hospital care.The high-energy ultraviolet light works by having its energy pass through cellular walls of infection-causing agents like viruses and bacteria. Disinfection occurs by the UV-C fusing with DNA strands (thymine diners), and stopping an organism’s ability to replicate, thus being an infectious entity no more.There are cost disadvantages associated with the UV system as compared to the hydrogen peroxide system option, a cost that may be higher, although in the long run a UV system would economically be more valuable to hospitals by reducing product purchases. As adoption of the two systems grow, a need to choose between the better of a UV or hydrogen peroxide vapor will quickly need to be decided within the medical community, along with studies showing whether the UV system does in fact reduce rates within hospital rooms rather than just eliminating germs.

More information on Xenex can be found here.

‍Marketing Strategy Insights

• Fiscal growth for disinfection robots is projected to grow from $30 million in 2014, upwards to $80 million by 2017.
• Studies are still being conducted to see which system works best compared to hydrogen peroxide vapor systems in reducing infections acquired in hospitals. It is recommended to try a robot prior to investing in a purchase.
• Wellness initiatives will continue to surface and address the needs of busy CEOs and VPs audiences.

Brain mechanisms work during sleep‍

We are halfway through the first month of the New Year, how have you held up to your New Years resolutions? With the most popular resolution of living a healthier lifestyle, sometimes changing routines can be difficult to remember or stick to. While this may or may not be your resolution, the best way to achieve your goals is simple. Get enough sleep.Depriving your body of sleep can impair memory, create a lower tolerance to handling stress, and alter your brain’s ability to store old and new information. While this could be why our resolutions to be healthy go on the backburner, it is imperative to regenerate your mind each night to start up invigorated the next day.With the popularity of e-books and sleeping near your smartphone, try to sway these habits when you rest your head on your pillow as these seemingly innocent habits can disrupt your sleeping habits. While assuming the habit of checking your smartphone or reading articles could be the culprits, it is mainly the light of your device that keeps your sleepy eyes open. Photoreceptors in the retina see the stream of light and tell your brain it is daylight, miscuing day/night information and promoting wakefulness. Tricking your mind to act as if it is go time, instead of sleep time.

‍Wellness Insights

• Turning off handheld devices will promote a better nights sleep. Setting a timer on your device will remind you it’s time for shut-eye.
• An adequate amount of sleep each night will promote less stress and better memory skills.
• While resolutions are tough, it is important to focus on your well-being to ensure a healthy lifestyle.