Advancements of technology in healthcare
Who has ever imagined that advancements of technology would bring inequality in the healthcare sector? Over the past few decades, health care delivery in the United States has reformed as a result of technological advancements. Technology has not only played an essential role in organizations but has also impacted people’s lives. Historically, medical practitioners communicated with patients from the perspective they saw was the best. There were no ethical procedures followed as to how medical personnel and hospitals should treat patients. Patients had no voice concerning their healthcare treatment. However, technology has revolutionized different aspects of health care, with patient satisfaction being the topmost core value among the clinicians.
Besides, there the medical practitioners and hospitals must follow well-laid procedures while handling patients. Technology has made all these aspects possible. Thus, technological advancements that have made lives better and as well saved them. Nevertheless, one question that brings a dilemma in the health sector is whether as technology continues to advance, will everyone can access it, or it will bring more stratification in society? Undeniably, rapid technological advancements will revolutionize the health sector, but, paradoxically, it can also exacerbate health inequality.
Technology has led to a significant reduction in common infectious infections as well as a decline in mortality rates. Since 1990, child mortality rates have halved, and in almost every nation, since 1960, there has been an increase in average life expectancy by 15years. Digital technologies such as nanotechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence have changed the landscape of biomedicine. These technologies have also had an impact on the treatment of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Fiona quotes Celynee Balatbat and Victor Dzau of the National Academy of Medicine and how they warn that numerous technological advancements will bring divisions and widen social inequity. They argue that medical progress benefits, especially those arising from complicated or expensive medical technologies, have not been distributed equally, resulting in health inequality.
Medical advancements that target cancer and other cardiovascular diseases have a huger impact on public health in middle income and high-income populations. The primary concern is that these technological advancements may translate to an increase in health care costs. In the past few decades, medical devices, hospitalization, and prices of drugs have increased healthcare spending. The current trajectory is that global health expenditure is expected to rise to US$18 trillion by 2040 as a result of medical advancements. These high costs brought by technological advancements may limit access to healthcare for low-income families, and ethnic and racial minorities may also be affected in terms of access to health care, where treatments may not be effective for them. Individuals from high-income families may be the ones who may benefit
To implement digital technologies, a skilled workforce is also essential. It is no longer an issue about what will be done by machines and what will be done by people, but the primary concern is a man-machine combination. Besides, the logistics and training can also have an impact on health care availability. For instance, complex and high treatment regimes that need specialized support can aggravate health inequalities among various socio-economic groups. The only regimes that can reduce health inequalities are simplified ones.
With technological advancements, it is now possible to generate and capture vast amounts of health data in real-time, which plays an essential role in health care development. The ability to integrate and analyze data will help understand drivers of health and patterns of disease and, in particular, the social determinants of health. Al technology has helped health care practitioners make treatment and diagnosis decisions. Al health assistants may support patients to achieve better health by reminding patients the time they are supposed to take medications. Advancements in Al and digital technologies may change the delivery of health care in terms of whom it is delivered to, where and when it is delivered. The result is that health care will be shifted from the clinics and be delivered in new settings like home, and a lot of focus will be on prevention. Health care will be democratized where people will have better information access, and the new technologies will allow patients to make their choices concerning their health care. Nevertheless, the main challenge will be whether those from low-income families will keep in touch with those technological advancements because something like home-based care comes with an increase in costs. The overall result will be health inequality because only those from middle and high-income groups will be able to afford home-based care of the costs.
Refernces
https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/medical-advances-can-exacerbate-inequality/
https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/10/463/eaau4778
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.116.022139