Challenges of Globalization and Their Impact on Healthcare - Essay Example

Globalization and Healthcare The need for covering emergent social problems is often used as an argument in order to justify the increased involvement of globalization in the healthcare industry internationally. At a first level, certain aspects of globalization, such as the Internet and the social media, have been proved as valuable for increasing the effectiveness of healthcare services in countries where the research on healthcare is not adequately supported. On the other hand, globalization has the power to influence the global economy. If strong financial pressures appear in a particular market the expansion of the problem around the world can be rapid due to globalization. Thus globalization can both benefit and harm the healthcare sector in the context analyzed below. Globalization and Healthcare The expansion of globalization in countries worldwide has caused several changes to a variety of social and economic activities. In healthcare also the impact of globalization has been rather high. In fact, it seems that gradually healthcare becomes independent from traditional social values and comes closer to the market. As noted in the study of Tritter et al. (2010) under the influence of globalization patient is treated more as a consumer and not as a member of the society; in the last case, the right of patient to ask for health and safety cannot be doubted or denied. The effects of globalization on healthcare are reviewed in this paper. Reference is made not only to the transformation of healthcare services, as a result of globalization, but, mainly, to the introduction of new modes of communication between patients and healthcare staff. These developments will be evaluated, as of their quality and their necessity, taking into consideration the political and economic turbulences that countries internationally have to face. The effects of globalization on healthcare are described in the study of Labonte (2009). According to the above researcher, globalization can severely affect the quality of health (Labonte 2009, p.7); still, the interaction between globalization and healthcare is not direct (Labonte 2009, p.7). This interaction can be made clear through the following description: In the context of globalization the workforce in each country is alternated and increased. This is a phenomenon clearer in developed or, even, in developing countries where the chances for entering the job market are higher compared to poor countries. At the next level, the income of existing workforce is gradually reduced (Labonte 2009, p.7). This leads, among other consequences, to the limitation of the potentials of people to spend on healthcare services (Labonte 2009, p.7). In other words, globalization results to the reduction of the average income of people worldwide; the access to healthcare services becomes more difficult (Labonte 2009, p.7). In this context, in each country the potentials of people to access the healthcare services are reduced as globalization is expanded across the particular country. From a similar point of view Tan & Payton (2010) focus on the power of globalization to influence the stability of markets internationally. Reference is made, as an example, to the recent financial crisis of 2008 (Tan & Payton 2010). It is explained that because of globalization the above crisis has been expanded quite rapidly in all markets (Tan & Payton 2010), affecting all industries. The healthcare industry has been also affected, a fact that is reflected in the deterioration or even the elimination of healthcare services in many healthcare institutes globally. In the same context, globalization leads to the transformation of the status of patients. Traditionally, patients have been considered as human beings with emergent needs and increased rights, meaning especially the right to health and safety (Tritter et al 2010, p.31). However, in regions with high density of population the treatment of patients may face delays (Tritter et al. 2010). The categorization of healthcare institutes using criteria of income has been used as a practice for ensuring that people of high social status will be offered the best possible healthcare services (Tritter et al. 2010, p.31). The excuse for such practice is the different potentials of people to respond to the cost of healthcare services (Tritter et al. 2010). In the above context, the promotion of inequality in healthcare service seems as justified. The continuous increase of global population is also used as a justification for promoting such practices (Tritter et al 2010, p.31). Globalization has helped the expansion of this phenomenon internationally (Tritter et al. 2010, p.31). The establishment of discrimination in healthcare, as also in other aspects of life, has been highly supported by globalization at the level that practices that have been already established in the international community are commonly used as the basis for the design of national practices in regard to similar issues, a fast highlighted in the study of Tritter et al. 2010, p.31). It seems though that globalization has also supported the improvement of healthcare services. More specifically, through globalization the development of advanced techniques in the healthcare sector of a particular country influences the healthcare sector of other countries (Tulchinsky & Varavikova 2009, p.606). For example, by using Internet, healthcare practitioners can be informed on new techniques for treating a specific illness (Tulchinsky & Varavikova 2009, p.606). Through Internet healthcare practitioners can be also informed whether a health problem can be effectively faced or not and which would be its consequences for the health of the patients, either in the short or the long term (Tulchinsky & Varavikova 2009, p.606). In the same context, through Internet, a research tool that is part of globalization, healthcare practitioners can be informed on new drugs but also on unknown effects of drugs which are already used in the market (Tulchinsky & Varavikova 2009, p.606). The issues discussed above lead to the assumption that the involvement of globalization in the healthcare sector has both positive and negative aspects. The role of globalization in the healthcare industry of a particular country is depended on the principles and rules used for the development of the national policies in regard to the specific industry. This means that in countries where national policies are not highly influenced by the similar practices of other countries, the potentials of globalization to affect the healthcare industry are limited and vice versa. After reviewing the relationship between the globalization and the healthcare industry, as described above, the following suggestion would be made: practices that are already used in the healthcare industry internationally should not always regarded as fully verified; instead, before establishing national healthcare policies legislators should take into consideration local needs, existing infrastructure and the local ethics and culture. References Labonte, R. (2009) Globalization and Health: Pathways, Evidence and Policy. New York: Taylor & Francis. Tan, J. & Payton, F. (2010) Adaptive Health Management Information Systems: Concepts, Cases & Practical Applications. Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Tritter, J., Koivusalo, M., Ollila, E. & Dorfman, P. (2010) Globalisation, Markets and Healthcare Policy: Redrawing the Patient as Consumer. London: Routledge. Tulchinsky, T. & Varavikova, E. (2009). The New Public Health. Burlington: Academic Press Read More