Although medical technologies have positively affected many patients and the whole health sector by lengthening the lives and improving the quality of life for many patients, there are still some negative effects caused by these advancements. This essay will explore the impacts, both positive and negative of medical technologies on individuals’ social health and how they shape the experiences of health, illness, and deaths.
According to Hamine (81), continuous healthcare technological development has saved many lives and improved quality of life of many patients. While this technology has changed the experiences of countless patients and their families, it has also impacted the practices of healthcare professional and their medical processes. Therefore, one of the positive impacts of medical technology is the increase in the quality of care provided to patients (Keasberry et al 70). Also, given the fact that sometimes care providers find it difficult to make the correct diagnosis and determine the best treatment course due to limited information, technology provides data that narrows down the options of the providers leading to better results and more targeted care for the patients. Additionally, medical technology allows care providers to connect with their patients remotely and provide them with valuable care through telemedicine solutions, hence making many healthcare aspects presumably more cost-effective and convenient.
Medical technologies have made patient care to be more reliable and safer as it enables nurses and doctors to use handheld computers to check whether they are administering the correct medication as well as scrutinizing patients’ medical records. Because records of vital signs, lab test results and medicine orders can be stored in the main database where they can be easily retrieved, it makes it possible for the patients to access their health information easily, hence understanding what the care providers are doing to them (Raza 84). These databases consolidate a wide variety of patient information that can be used for medical research to assist in finding out the cause and trends of ailments, hence guaranteeing more breakthroughs in the future.
Medical technologies like better monitoring systems, minimally-invasive surgeries, and comfortable scanning equipment are reducing the time which patients need to spend in the recovery room (Keasberry et al 75). Based on the fact that every person likes to be in good health, reducing the recovery time has enabled patients to reduce the stress associated with illness.
Medical technologies influence the way doctors treat patients and also how they understand their complaints and ailments. Medical technologies impact the way patients perceive their health conditions and illnesses and this has made them to know how to take care of themselves in order to live healthy (Raza 78). Additionally, it influences the way in which diseases are defined and specified, as well as how human beings experience illness and health.
According to Agha (35), illness is a basic individual experience and can be subjected to the impact of technological interventions. Illness differs from diseases in the sense that it is dependent on the perspective of the patient regarding bodily suffering, contrary to the perspective of the doctor, who in this case, investigates the body as a biological organism. This means that the suffering person, who is the patient, experiences illness as it is in his body contrary to the living body that is studied by medical technologies and science (Hamine 81). Medical technology can also affect the patients’ health by transforming the current illness experiences by either replacing or becoming part of the experience.
According to Agha (37), medical technology enables patients to experience their bodies in different ways, hence making them more inclined to assess their health conditions with medical criteria. This implies that technologies transform and mediates illness experiences for the patients because they can alter the symptom formation through the numbers that are shown and measured by the technologies that manage diseases.
Health is also increasingly a life goal that needs to be controlled and managed besides being a condition that makes it possible for human beings to realize various goods and projects (Keasberry et al 77). Medical technology scrutinizes body functions and provides the necessary information about certain diseases or the risk factors for those illnesses, and also provides information on the strength and stability of the patients’ health. Also, it affects health experiences in a case of medicalization and in a way of technology where the creation of health apps enables digital tracking which changes the prestige and social-cultural value related to certain diseases (Agha 35). Therefore, health is mediated and targeted through medical technology ways which are subjected to various regimes where the patients change their preferences and lifestyles to stay healthy. According to Hamine (79), some types of medical technology can save a dying patient, hence reducing the complexity about death down to scientific definitions. However, the line that is between life and death is primarily defined by the perception which patients have concerning the meaning of life and the extent they are willing to endure.
Medical technologies also have some negative effects on the patients’ health and wellbeing. One of the effects is the minimized impersonal health care since the care providers rely heavily on the technology and fail to spend enough time knowing their patients as individuals. Because of this, the care providers may miss a sign or symptom that may not be available in the electronic medical records (Raza 79). This symptom could be an indication that there could be something else that is wrong besides the primary diagnosis or even end up being a different diagnosis altogether. Also, forgetting the social aspect of caregiving and healing is a problem given that caregivers are being replaced by technology a factor which has affected the quality of care because doctor-patient relationship is the foundation of better health care.
Another negative effect is an increase in various costs because the expenses incurred when diagnosing a patient for a particular illness determines the amount of money he or she will pay for the diagnosis ((Hamine 81). additionally, the cost of implementing cost in health centers is sometimes very high, and therefore this makes patients sometimes to be charged higher especially those who receive medical services offered using these technologies as one of the ways of meeting the implementation and maintained cost
According to Hamine (84), technology has also contributed to mistakes being witnessed in the provision of healthcare services because medical practitioners tend to assume that it solves all problems and therefore pay little or no attention to some sensitive factors. This issue has led to an increase in number of deaths, or health issues which can be addressed ending up to become a problem which cannot be solved. For example, sometimes medical practitioners assume the process which should be used in using cancer screening machines because they assume that they cannot make mistakes, and this has therefore contributed to making the illness to progress to advanced stages without being properly addressed
Moreover, whilst the patient information is stored in databases for easier retrieval by the health professionals, the information is prone to hackers who can use it for blackmailing clients with certain medical conditions that are supposed to be confidential. Sensitive information such as billing information, medical history, and address information can also be accessed by unintended people and used to undertake activities which can raise security concerns to not only the patients but also to the hospital.
Another negative effect is the initial evidence of reliability and efficacy of the medical technologies that may lead to overuse or unnecessary use by the health professionals. For instance, the utilization rates for CT scanners and the automated clinical laboratories are rapidly rising without proper proof that they benefit patients’ health or the society at large (Hamine 82). This problem is been aggravated by malpractice suit threats where the protective ordering of medical test by health care providers is being fostered.
In conclusion, medical technologies continue to provide health care providers with new ways of improving the quality of patient care, so as to enhance their quality of life and also improve the state of health care around the world. Through technological integration in areas such as surgical procedures, disease prevention, medical telecommunications and better access to medical data, the health care systems will continue benefiting their patients. Therefore, due to various things which have come along with technological advancements, it is right to argue that medical technology has different impacts on patients’ lives because it determines their health, wellbeing and also improves the quality of life.
Work cited
Agha, Leila. "The effects of health information technology on the costs and quality of medical care." Journal of health economics Vol. 34, 2014, pp. 19-30.
Hamine, Saee. "Impact of mHealth chronic disease management on treatment adherence and patient outcomes: a systematic review." Journal of medical Internet research, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2015, pp.78-89
Keasberry, Scoot J., Sullivan I. A., Staib C. &Ashby, A. Narrative overview of the clinical and organizational impacts of health technologies in hospital practice. Australian Health Review. Vol. 41, 2017, Pp.65-78
Raza, Shah. S. (2014). Smartphone Healthcare: Technology Comes with Caution! Perspectives in Public Health, Vol. 134, No. 6, 2014, pp. 78-99.
