Medicine Essay

Medical technology has impacted healthcare in various ways. Undoubtedly, there are both advantages as well as disadvantages of medical technology in terms of the delivery of healthcare. One advantage of medical technology is that it enables proper record-keeping1. Proper records of patients’ medical histories, prescriptions, allergies etc enable physicians and nurses to avoid mistakes in delivery of healthcare. In addition, electronic medical records save time in retrieval. Another advantage of medical technologies is that they help save lives. Examples of such technologies include artificial hearts and modern dialysis equipment2. Another advantage of medical technologies is the improvement of diagnostic tests. Diagnostic tests check for the absence or presence of an illness. Modern technologies of performing diagnostic tests are not only more accurate, but also more efficient than traditional approaches2.
One disadvantage of medical technology, however, is inefficiency. Calls in healthcare for an increase in the adoption of modern health technologies such as Electronic patient records are not backed by evidence3. In addition, Health Information Technologies (HITs) are only effective when adopted comprehensively. Secondly, overreliance in medical technologies can be detrimental to the delivery of healthcare. When medical staff over-relies on technologies at their place of work, they expose themselves to problems when the computer systems face technical errors. This problem may pose considerable challenges in the Accident & Emergency department. Similarly, if computer systems fail, failure to retrieve a patient’s prescription information in a timely manner may lead to mistakes or even death. The third disadvantage of medical technologies is their high cost. The high cost implications of medical technologies make them inaccessible to some hospitals and some disadvantaged communities4. Undoubtedly, comprehensive adoption of medical technologies is bound to have more advantages than disadvantages in the long run.

References

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Darking M, Anson R, Bravo F et al. Practice-centred evaluation and the privileging of care in health information technology evaluation. BMC Health Services Research. 2014;14(1):243. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-14-243.
Weiner J, Yeh S, Blumenthal D. The Impact Of Health Information Technology And e-Health On The Future Demand For Physician Services. Health Affairs. 2013;32(11):1998-2004. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0680.