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Healthcare Inequalities as an Ethical Concern Emanating from Current Technology

Healthcare Inequalities as an Ethical Concern Emanating from Current Technology

Advancements in technology have played a vital role in improving the standards of care provided in healthcare organizations. The innovations, which include new sophisticated tools, help diagnose, treat and monitor patients' progress. However, studies have shown that the technological tools have caused a significant disparity in the extent to which different groups of individuals can access healthcare services (Smith & Magnani, 2019). This essay investigates healthcare inequalities as an ethical concern emanating from current technology. It explains why this issue is crucial, outlines the research questions that the problem precipitates, and explores literature that discusses it.

Topic Justification

The reason for selecting the topic is that healthcare is a significant aspect of humanity's lives. Therefore, all individuals must access healthcare services that meet their dynamic needs. However, the presence of healthcare technology is increasingly causing a disparity between different populations that is worthy of exploration. Firstly, various technological tools have been invented to improve patients' quality of care, such as wearable devices that monitor significant patient data to deduce any drastic changes that require medical attention (Yao, 2022). However, the cost of accessing these sophisticated tools is significantly high, resulting in some populations, such as low-income earners, failing to afford them. Similarly, technological tools can be used to perform advanced medical procedures to treat different ailments (Leonardsen et al., 2020). Despite the significance of healthcare technology, many individuals in the populace, such as those from minority communities, cannot afford them. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate these ethical concerns to determine how they impact healthcare delivery systems.

Research Questions

Question One

How has the decision to use technological devices in healthcare dissemination affected access to care among people from the minority community?

Justification of The Question

All human beings have entitled to adequate healthcare services that meet their diverse needs. Therefore, it is morally wrong for technological tools to benefit some individuals more than others (Yao et al., 2022). Such an eventuality would imply that the life of some individuals in society is considered more valuable than that of others, which is unjust and ethically wrong.

Research Findings

Yao et al. (2022) carried out an investigative study aiming to determine the unequal access to care triggered by the use of technological tools. The authors study the factors that precipitated the trend and the measures that can be taken to overcome it and promote access to care among the disadvantaged groups. According to the conclusions drawn from the investigation, allowing some populations to lack access to technology-based care is unjust and morally wrong (Yao et al., 2022). Therefore, it is necessary to instigate measures that increase the accessibility of technological tools to underserved populations, such as those economically disadvantaged, to minimize inequality.

Question Two

What are the benefits of using technological devices that people from poor socio-economic backgrounds miss out on due to health disparities?

Justification for The Question

This research aims to prove that the use of technology has caused an ethical issue: disparities in healthcare among different groups in society. Therefore, it is significant to examine the benefits that those who can afford healthcare technology enjoy that those who fail to use them miss out on, which indicates that the trend is unethical.

Research Findings

Leonardsen et al. (2020) investigated the benefits of using technology-enabled care in care provision, including telecare and digital devices. The investigation indicated that electronic patient monitoring systems are essential because they promote increased interactions between patients and healthcare providers. As a result, the patients made fewer visits to the emergency rooms, an aspect that reduced the cost of healthcare. It also ensured that drastic changes in patients' health were identified promptly, and the necessary care plan was initiated on time, hence reducing patient mortality rates (Leonardsen et al., 2020). Further, it helped in reducing crowding in the emergency rooms because of a lesser need for patient-provider consultations.

Question Three

What are the consequences of the health disparity that the disadvantaged groups face due to lack of access to technology?

Justifications for The Question

This question aims to unravel the drastic ramifications that the socio-economically disadvantaged face because they cannot access healthcare technology to prove that the trend is ethically wrong. It unmasks the consequences of healthcare disparities and the need to promote equal access to healthcare.

Research Findings

Smith and Magnani (2019) investigated the health disparities that the continued advancement of health technologies imparted to the patient population, especially the underserved communities. The findings of the study indicated that those who failed to use the technological tools such as wearable devices and noninvasive surgical procedures grappled with higher treatment costs and constant need for medical consultations (Smith & Magnani, 2019). Also, due to their low economic status, most patients from minority communities and poor socio-economic backgrounds failed to seek treatment for their conditions leading to higher mortality rates from chronic ailments.

Conclusion

One of the reasons for the introduction of technology into the healthcare systems is to improve the quality of care that patients receive. However, studies have shown that it has caused immense injustice by favoring some populations over others in the community. While those from affluent backgrounds are experiencing numerous benefits such as better health and satisfaction and reduced healthcare costs, high mortality rates due to increased healthcare costs are the norm among the poor who lack the finances needed to experience the same privileges. Therefore, this highlights that the use of technology in healthcare is unethical because of the healthcare disparities it precipitates. It contradicts the ethical principle of justice and equity, which indicates that all individuals in society should have equal opportunities.

References

Leonardsen, A. C. L., Hardeland, C., Helgesen, A. K., & Grøndahl, V. A. (2020). Patient experiences with technology enabled care across healthcare settings-a systematic review. BMC health services research, 20(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05633-4

Smith, B., & Magnani, J. W. (2019). New technologies, new disparities: the intersection of electronic health and digital health literacy. International journal of cardiology, 292, 280-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2019.05.066

Yao, R., Zhang, W., Evans, R., Cao, G., Rui, T., & Shen, L. (2022). Inequities in health care services caused by the adoption of digital health technologies: scoping review. Journal of medical Internet research, 24(3), e34144. https://doi.org/10.2196/34144