Technology in Medicine: A Boon or a Bane? (Point Counter Point)

While my research has shown that technology has undoubtedly changed every aspect of our lives, especially in the field of medicine, new medical developments, and techniques for helping people live longer and healthier lives, some people believe that there are some significant challenges which advancement in technology is posing to our society.

Bernie Monegain in his article “Technology Helps Drive High Cost of U.S. Healthcare” published on Health Care IT News, writes about the constantly rising costs in U.S. healthcare due to the ongoing advancements in medical technology. Monegain refers to a new study from the Commonwealth Fund and states, “Higher prices and greater use of technology appear to be the main factors driving the high rates of U.S. spending on healthcare and also found the U.S. spends more on healthcare than 12 other industrialized countries, yet does not provide notably superior care” (1). Monegain further writes “The U.S. spent nearly $8,000 per person in 2009 on healthcare services, while other countries in the study spent between one-third (Japan and New Zealand) and two-thirds (Norway and Switzerland) as much” (1).

Panth and Acharya in their article “The Unprecedented Role of Computers in Improvement and Transformation of Public Health: An Emerging Priority.” Published in Indian Journal of Community Medicine, highlights the role of computers in improving the public health care but also counters the argument by presenting the concerns related to the use of computers by saying, “On one hand, where computers have replaced millions of employees, their excessive usage threaten the security and confidentiality of records and in the event of problems like spywares, viruses, and Trojans, can suddenly stop and leave their users helpless until technical support fixes it” (Panth and Acharya 11,12).

In the article “Does Technology Help Doctors to Access, Use and Share Knowledge?” published in Medical Education Bullock writes, “Technology can facilitate the connections between doctors and knowledge, but the concerns and challenges it raises also warrant attention and the effects of technology are not neutral” (31). Bullock raises concerns related to issues of knowledge ownership, information overload, and quality control, which online medical resources are posing. Dr. Joseph Tauber in his article, “The Lost Art of Medicine.” from the journal Opthalmology Times writes, “Technology is great, but don’t forget about the human touch” (4). Tauber describes the old way in which “Listening, observing, and performing a clinical exam was the basis of medical practice compared with the current priorities of medical practice which includes focusing on declining reimbursements, verifying appropriate diagnosis codes to improve reimbursements, and treating the data instead of patient complaints” (6).

I do agree that we cannot ignore the challenges we are facing with the advancing technology, but the benefits we have seen are definitely not any sort of overestimate. I agree with

Monegain about the rising cost of healthcare in the U.S., but disagree in blaming it on the advancements of technology. In his article he also mentions lower costs of healthcare in other developed nations, which are providing the same standards of care, but at a much lower cost. We cannot blame the rising cost on the technology and need to do more research on possible confounding factors, which are driving health care costs in the U.S. Instead of holding the ongoing research and advancements due to cost factors, we need to find more cost effective ways. Panth and Acharya has raised a valid point of security and confidentiality in using the computer for health records, but the role computers are playing in disease surveillance, telemedicine, health management information systems, geographic information systems, electronic medical records, bioengineering, and public health informatics cannot be ignored. We need to find more secure ways of transmitting and storing the confidential information. The argument by Tauber about losing the human touch is more a system issue rather than blaming the advancing technology. The healthier lifestyle and improved life expectancy are surely our priorities over these concerns and we need to continue working on improving our technology for the betterment of society while finding the solutions to the new challenges as they show up.

Works Cited

Bullock, Alison. “Does Technology Help Doctors to Access, Use and Share Knowledge?” Medical Education 48.1 (2014): 28-33. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Jul 2015.

Monegain, Bernie. “Technology Helps Drive High Cost of U.S. Healthcare.” Health Care IT News. 03 May 2012. Web. 02 Aug 2015

Panth, Madhuri, and Anita Shankar Acharya. “The Unprecedented Role of Computers in Improvement and Transformation of Public Health: An Emerging Priority.” Indian Journal of Community Medicine 40.1 (2015): 8-13. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Jul 2015.

Tauber, Joseph. “The Lost Art of Medicine.” Opthalmology Times 40.5 (2015): 4-6. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Jul 2015