Running head: ANDREW DUTTON REPLY
Andrew Dutton reply
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ANDREW DUTTON REPLY
Technology has been of more advantage than disadvantage in the healthcare field.
Continuous technological inventions have improved the quality of care for patients and have also
saved countless lives. It is also good to acknowledge the impact of technology on the practices of
healthcare professionals and general medical processes across the globe (Fiorini et al, 2016). The
latest technological inventions include the digitization of health records, big data and the cloud,
telemedicine, and the internet of things among others. The availability of mobile applications and
wearables such as smartwatches that help patients track their health status are also great
technological milestones in healthcare.
It is even more interesting that these technological advancements are not only unique to
one place but have been embraced worldwide. This is the work of globalization and technology
itself. Consequently, as technology moves so do patients move from one country to another.
Hence, it is essential that these patients find the same kind of healthcare services as those they are
used to receiving (Fiorini et al, 2016). However, this is not usually the case as different countries
are on different levels when it comes to technology and health informatics. In other words, the
contemporary world still lacks integrated communication and information media that can propel
the storage of massive amounts of data for international health informatics. The technological
developments in healthcare still lack components such as translational informatics, machine
learning, and intelligent systems for patients and clinicians among others (McCormick & Saba,
2015). Even those that have them have not fully deployed their use as there is a challenge with
user acceptance and friendliness. This explains the start of technological revolutions in healthcare
yet the inception such as that of health technology and informatics started in 1990.
Therefore, there needs to be a clear understanding of the challenges that exist in healthcare
as a result of the coming in of technology and how they disrupt the quality of care patients receive.
This is because in as much as technology is bringing a lot of benefits in the healthcare field, the
uncertainty that accompanies it could result in more problems rather than solve them. Thus,
researchers need to consider the current use of the existing health technology and informatics as a
pilot phase and go back to finding ways of addressing them (Sittig & Singh, 2015). Technological
inventors in health tend to come up with technological development and figure out how it
influences healthcare delivery later when they ought to do the reverse. The benefits of technology
and informatics in healthcare can only be realized if the researchers and developers weigh the
advantages against the disadvantages before the implementation of any technology.
1 Timothy 4:8 “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things,
holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”
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ANDREW DUTTON REPLY
References
Fiorini, R. A., De, P. G., & L'Abate, L. (2016). Wellbeing Understanding in High Quality
Healthcare Informatics and Telepractice. Studies in health technology and
informatics, 226, 153-156.
McCormick, K., & Saba, V. (2015). Essentials of nursing informatics. McGraw-Hill Education.
Sittig, D. F., & Singh, H. (2015). A new socio-technical model for studying health information
technology in complex adaptive healthcare systems. In Cognitive Informatics for
Biomedicine(pp. 59-80). Springer, Cham.
