Human Health: The Good and Bad Effects of Technology in Medicine

Background

Many people believe that technology is the driving force behind advancements in healthcare,
and when they look at the velocity of development and recent advances, it's difficult not to agree. With
the advancement of technology, ordinary people's everyday lives are becoming increasingly integrated
with such innovations, bringing the notion of a normative lifestyle to a more techno-oriented and
machine and digital co-dependent perspective. Technology has made us healthier and live longer, from
the creation of X-ray equipment to breakthroughs in surgical methods. As the twenty-first century
progresses, we continue to create technologies that treat ailments and improve our quality of life.
Technological advancements in the healthcare industry have saved many individuals and constantly
enhanced our quality of life. Not only that, but medical technology has had a significant influence on
practically all procedures and practices of healthcare professionals. While these technological
advancements provide several benefits, it is vital to emphasize that if technology is not carefully
integrated and used correctly, it has the potential to outrun human purpose, causing enormous harm.

Statement of the Problem

With the advantages and disadvantages of technology in the field of Medicine, here are some
problems that the paper would like to discuss:

1. How has technology improved healthcare?

Transportation, research and development, manufacturing, and education are all influenced by
information technology in the twenty-first century, but healthcare is the field where it may have the
most impact. However, such integration of technology and human lifestyle harms human health.
Technology has both positive and negative consequences for humans.

Among the numerous advantages that electronic health records have brought to healthcare are
the following: excellent patient care, improved public health and facilities, ease of workflow, better and
easier access to health information and treatment, and many more. Unfortunately, there are still some
glitches to be worked out on the use of technology in medicine. Rather than a well-functioning record
system, many networks lack interconnectivity, which means they cannot interact with one another. This
lack of communication can sometimes threaten the health of patients. And because patient information
relies now on technology, there could be a set of problems, or the system could be damaged sometimes,
which could affect the records of the patients and the facilities when there is a power outage, for
example, in a hospital.

That’s why students under the STEM program (Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics) need to learn and research how technology improved healthcare and the problems that
come around it. Studying and researching this topic could be an opportunity for new knowledge and
understanding that the students can apply to the future.

Review of Related Literature

Technology has helped to improve and simplify health care in everyday life by providing vital
facts and chances for treatment in a timely and precise manner. Everyone now has access to treatment
facilities, and online doctor consultations and the practice of medicine as a whole have advanced by
leaps and bounds.

According to an article entitled The Good and Bad Impact of Technology on Health, the use of
many sorts of technologies, such as telecommunications and computers, to store, retrieve, and transfer
information is referred to as information technology. The use of technological systems to manage
health-related information is referred to as healthcare information technology.
 Healthcare information technology, in particular, refers to the sharing of health-related data via
electronic systems. The use of information technology has been shown to provide several benefits,
including better medical treatment, fewer medical mistakes, lower health-care expenses, and more
cheap health-care coverage overall.

Medical education is rapidly changing, influenced by many factors including the changing health
care environment, the changing role of the physician, altered societal expectations, rapidly changing
medical science, and the diversity of pedagogical techniques. Changes in societal expectations put
patient safety in the forefront, and raises the ethical issues of learning interactions and procedures on
live patients, with the long-standing teaching method of “see one, do one, teach one” no longer
acceptable. The educational goals of using technology in medical education include facilitating basic
knowledge acquisition, improving decision making, enhancement of perceptual variation, improving skill
coordination, practicing for rare or critical events, learning team training, and improving psychomotor
skills. Different technologies can address these goals (Guze, 2015).

One of the most important, and highly debated, elements of our society is the quality of
healthcare available to patients. And, undeniably, a driving force behind quality healthcare is the
adoption of technology that enables clinicians to provide better patient care (Skinner, 2017). A large
number of digital innovations are revolutionizing healthcare — and technology in medicine is here to
stay. Numerous innovations and new solutions are already on the market and they have all improved
healthcare drastically. Multiple medical issues such as congestive heart failure, diabetes, medication
noncompliance, even stressful isolation, are researched and solved with remarkable new technologies
(How Technology is Changing the World of Medicine | Humanitas University, 2016).

Some application of technology in healthcare is the use of mobile phones when making a
schedule or appointments to a doctor or hospital. A research paper by (Free et al., 2013) conducted a
study about Effectiveness of Mobile-Health Technologies to Improve Health Care Service Delivery
Processes and the results for health care provider support interventions on diagnosis and management
outcomes are generally consistent with modest benefits. Trials using mobile technology-based photos
reported reductions in correct diagnoses when compared to the gold standard. SMS appointment
reminders have modest benefits and may be appropriate for implementation. 

According to (AIMS Education, 2019), Medical billers and coders are some of the most-impacted
allied health workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics – demand for this sector is expected to
increase by 13% from 2016 to 2026. Entering data into a computerized system is much less time-
consuming than paper-based methods, and it reduces the risk of errors in patient data and financial
details. Accessing patient records digitally also allows medical coding experts to work from home,
increasing efficiency and productivity.

Another application of technology nowadays in healthcare especially in this time of pandemic is

medicine to reach further rural areas where it is difficult to get proper amenities for proper health (The
Good And Bad Impact Of Technology On Health, n.d.)

The impact of technology on health is not entirely positive, just as every coin has two sides.
There are several negative consequences of technology on our health, which are causing a slew of
maladies and medical issues. Modern technology and their advancement are becoming indispensable in
people's daily lives. This is causing us to become unduly reliant on such technology, and it is also the
cause of some of the negative aspects of one's health.

One of the disadvantages of medical technology is the increased cost of treatment. Almost all
treatments and surgeries involving technology are extremely costly, such as robotic surgery. Other kinds
of surgeries using technological machinery can be very expensive too. The vast majority of patients live
in rural areas and are poor. Costly surgeries are out of reach for poor patients (Ullah, n.d.). Technology
has made healthcare more accessible, but it has also made it more expensive, which most people
cannot afford it.

According to Behrens (2019), concerns over medical record privacy has increased as data has
become more centralized. Millions of people’s medical records have been hacked over the last 10 years.
Beyond this, there have been cases of people use fake IDs to buy prescription drugs and medical
equipment and fake insurance claims. Also, in hospital computer databases, information about patients
can be leaked. It is possible for computer systems to be hacked, allowing confidential information about
a patient’s treatment to be stolen and changed. If someone changes a patient’s full treatment history.
The next treatment can therefore be at risk (Ullah, n.d.).

The fact of the matter is that technology is complicated, and healthcare technology doubly so.
As consumerization becomes a growing focus for many in the industry, there’s little shortage of new
tools and products being designed for use by patients interested in taking control of their care. But
that’s not to say that they are being designed particularly well. A big issue is the varying levels of health
literacy a single product needs to accommodate. With many users undergoing care ranging from the
simple to the complex, a tool that offers information but does not appropriately contextualize it is more
likely to confuse the patient than it is to help them (Muoio, 2019).

To sum this up, according to an article written by Chandler on 2021, Technology can have both
negative and positive effects on people and jobs in the medical field. Technology has been and will
continue to advance every day. A positive effect technology has had on the medical field is the use of
handheld devices being used to record and update a patient’s medical history almost instantly. Just to
name a few other positive aspects, technology has reduced human errors, improve clinical outcomes,
made getting and staying in contact with patients easier. There are some negative effects like the use of
technology can also lead to more serious health conditions.

Technology and its advancement are an essential component of human life. It is a criteria for
increasing living efficiency and is also essential to the advancement of the human species as a whole. If
this development is unregulated and appropriate remedies to limit its negative elements are not
implemented, technology may do more harm than benefit.
Conceptual Framework and Methodology
 Every aspect of modern life is influenced by technology in some manner. Every day, new
technical devices are developed to make people's life simpler and to aid them with their job.
Furthermore, the medical and healthcare professions rely substantially on technology. In the healthcare
business, several technical instruments and equipment have been created. Although with every positive
effect, there will always be a downside in the use of technology especially when it comes to healthcare
or medicine. The advantages and disadvantages of technology in healthcare are shown in the conceptual
framework. These advantages and disadvantages are also discussed in the review of related literature.
The advantages of technology are better patient care, improved hospital facilities and equipment,
telemedicine, easier access of information, and ease of workflow and increased productivity. On the
other hand, the disadvantages are increased cost of treatment care, hacking of medical records,
breaching of personal information of the patients, and shortage of new tools and products.
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