Technology and Healthcare - Essay Example

Technology and Healthcare Why technology is important in Healthcare: Healthcare is a key behind the success of every society and country. Healthcare is one of the key points that every nation and every society has to address to ensure that basic needs of the people are there in place as in modern world, health care is being considered as one of the basic needs of mankind. With the development of technology, healthcare is now more advanced, more up to date and it is within reach of the people in every corner of the globe. “Digital innovations have now made it possible for consumers to use portable devices to access their medical information, monitor their vital signs, take tests at home and carry out a wide range of task.”(Topol, 2013). The potential of IT industry in the healthcare sector is huge and the opportunity is increasing with every passing year. To get involved in the healthcare industry, the amount invested by the venture capitalist has increased three times from 2010 to 2013, from $ 343million to $955 million. (Lee, 2013). There are 5 distinct ways by which the technology is associated with the health care industry. These include: Using data to offer a better diagnosis and treatment of the patient by the doctors and physician; Helping doctors to communicate with the patient in a better way; Technology able to help doctors to communicate between one another to consult about the treatment of any serious cases; Connecting doctors with the patient anytime from anywhere; Helping patients to stay healthy with the help of various mobile and technological applications. (Lee, 2013). One of the best examples of use of IT in healthcare is development of “Omnifluent Health, a translation program for doctors and others in the medical field.”(Lee, 2013) In USA, almost 47 million people do not speak or understand English, so this application I a great medium for them to communicate with doctors. New York City startup Sherpaa started a service of medical consultations online and over the phone for the people of USA. “Fitbit is one such kind of device which tracks daily sleep and activity and uses social networking and gaming to motivate its users. Lark is a silent alarm clock and sleep monitor that tracks and analyzes a person’s quality of sleep over time, offering suggestions to help the person get better rest”.(Lee, 2013). Not only that, online database helps doctors to predict medical trends accordingly which is the key behind successful treatment of the patients. In recent time, the development of various social media helps patients not only to reach the medical teams more effectively and easily but also helped them to take necessary primary care of their own. (Krueger, 2010). Reason behind choosing article: In modern word, robot assisted surgery is one of the most important advantage associated with the use of technology in the healthcare system. This article helps to understand the importance of this technology and at the same time present a cost-benefit analysis of the same. By analyzing this article one can get a clear view about the importance and popularity of this technology and at the same time cost associated with the same. The article is ‘New Technology and Health Care Costs — The Case of Robot-Assisted Surgery’ written by Barbash & Glied first publishes in the year of 2010 in The New England journal of Medicine. Summary of the Article: One of the great examples of use of technology in health care is Robot-Assisted Surgery. Robotic surgical devices allow a surgeon at a console to operate remote-controlled robotic arms, which may facilitate the performance of laparoscopic procedures. In last 4 years, the use of robot technology has increased rapidly in Europe and USA, and the number of robot assisted operation has increased from 80,000 to 2, 05,000. A wide range of procedures are now performed by means of robot-assisted surgery. There are number of operation done laparoscopically before this technology was introduced, but now the number is increased drastically. This process resultant into a “shorter hospital stays than open surgery, as well as with less postoperative pain and scarring and lower risks of infection and need for blood transfusion”.(Barbash & Glied, 2010). One of the key concern associated with this process is the high cost. On an average any robot assisted operation cost is higher than the normal operation. Any robot assisted procedure in operation increases overall cost by 6% and in a direct robot assisted operation the cost is almost 13% higher than the normal process. This extra hospital expenditure is likely to shakeup the expenditures of public and private insurers and in a way people have to rely more on health insurance to undergo such operations. In their article, they have also mentioned that although the chances of successful operation is very high in this cases, but still the robot assisted operation cannot replace the conventional surgery totally as the charges associated with this process is a major concern for the people belonging to lower middle class and lower class. How this technology will change the healthcare: The robot assisted operation can increase the percentage of successful operation in a great deal. This process will help the doctors to take some crucial decisions associated with some critical operations which are mainly done in treatment of diseases like brain tumor, prostatectomy, and other gynecological diseases. Not only that, this process is more error free and the success rate is very high for all these critical operations. Along with that, one can ensure high degree of patient safety in this process. Definition of Some terms associated with the Article: Prostatectomy: Prostatectomy can be defined as a surgical process by which doctors used to remove partial or all parts of the prostate gland of any human body. A simple prostatectomy is specified as the handling of Gentle Prostatic Hypertrophy, whereas the Radical prostatectomy is associated with the treatment of prostate cancer. Laparoscopic Surgery: Laparoscopy is a process of operation which involves use of a thin, lighted tube put through a cut or incision in the belly to have a clear view of the abdominal tissues or the female genital organs. Laparoscopy is used to find difficulties likecysts, adhesions, fibroids, and infection. (WebMD, 2012). Localized prostate cancer: It is a kind of prostate cancer which is present only in the prostate gland of the human body and not spread over to the other body parts when the disease was identified. Based on the nature of the prostate cancer, doctors generally divided the disease into 3 groups namely, Low risk prostate cancers which are not likely to cultivate or spread to other parts of the body for a long period of time; Medium or intermediate risk cancers which are not likely to grow inside the body within a few years; and finally the High risk cancers which has high chance of spreading all over the body within a very short span of time. (Cancer Research UK, 2014). References 1. Barbash, G.I & Glied, S.A; (2010); New Technology and Health Care Costs - The Case of Robot-Assisted Surgery; The new England Journal of medicine; retrieved on 1.8.2014 from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1006602 2. Risk factors in localized prostate cancer; (2014); Cancer research UK; retrieved on 1.8.2014 from http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/type/prostate-cancer/treatment/types/risk-factors-in-localised-prostate-cancer 3. Krueger, A; (2010); 6 Ways Technology Is Improving Healthcare; Business Insider; retrieved on 1.8.2014 from http://www.businessinsider.com/6-ways-technology-is-improving-healthcare-2010-12?IR=T# 4. Laparoscopy: Digestive Disorders Health Center; (2012) WebMD; retrieved on 1.8.2014 from http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/laparoscopy-16156 5. Lee, E; (2013); 5 Ways Technology Is Transforming Health Care; Forbes; retrieved on 1.8.2014 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/bmoharrisbank/2013/01/24/5-ways-technology-is-transforming-health-care/ 6. Topol, E;(2013); How Technology Is Transforming Health Care; US News; retrieved on 1.8.2014 from http://health.usnews.com/health-news/hospital-of-tomorrow/articles/2013/07/12/how-technology-is-transforming-health-care Read More