Field research:medical technology advancement and its benefits and concerns for the medical field

Field research:medical technology advancement and its benefits and concerns for the medical field

Over the course of this semester, I have been researching medical technology advancement and its benefits and concerns for the medical field. For this assignment, I conducted an interview with a college student in a medical program. I chose this interviewee to get the perspective of a generation that is accustomed to utilizing technology for most of their daily tasks. I found it interesting how quickly a college student would try a new medication or use new technology. The younger generations do not always think about long term effects or weigh pros and cons before making decisions.

 

During the interview, I asked how medical technology could be beneficial to the healthcare field. The student brought up the very important advancement of electronic health records. The use of EHR has been beneficial to health care on every level, the patient, provider, and even the insurance companies. Being able to access a patient’s medical history from a central source can be crucial to treating a patient. Often times patients have multiple doctors for different disease states. The doctors utilizing EHR allows any of this patient’s physicians to see what they are being treated for and what medications and history they may have. Unfortunately, not all patients know what they are being treated for or why they take a certain medication. The access to these records also aids the physician that has a patient that is not being forthcoming with all of their history or current medications. Another benefit we discussed was the use of telemedicine. Telemedicine is a fairly new advancement that was designed to allow those in outlying areas access to healthcare. The thought behind this being if a patient is not able to get to the doctor for whatever reason, they can make a phone call or video chat with a provider to determine a treatment plan. This advancement is utilized more by younger generations than others. The younger generations are more comfortable with how to use technology and don’t usually have as many reservations about sharing their information online.

The utilization of telemedicine has increased as society continues to gravitate towards the idea of instant gratification. If they make a phone call or facetime, they can get seen by a doctor right then instead of calling to make an appointment and then sitting in the doctor’s office for hours to be seen. The disadvantages of the technology that we discussed were the lack of trust that many have in technology as well as the fact that it is not always reliable. As with any type of technology, there is always the potential for a problem to occur. We see this daily with things such as our cell phones, but medical technological advances can see the same problems. An example of this, many hospitals utilize the telemedicine feature to assist with translating for patients that don’t speak english. The technology that is used is a portable ipad, and the translator is called on a video chat to interact with the patient. This product only works if there is a strong internet connection, which is not always the case in an emergency room setting. The malfunctioning of this can delay patient care, therefore possibly placing the patient at risk.

 

During my field research, I learned that advances in medical technology are better received by the younger generations. In addition, the benefits of the many advances outweigh the disadvantages. The biggest similarity that I have seen in my research has been the thought process of the scientists and the why behind the technology. The scientists that develop new machines, testing, or procedures have the patient’s well being in mind. As we see in Oryx and Crake, what is best for the people is not always the outcome. The example of the drug that was created, BlyssPluss, to provide sexual desire, prolonged youth, and protection against all STD’s was later found to actually also act as a permanent contraceptive. This was not marketed as such to the people and if this had been divulged, the drug would not have been as successful for the government. This possibility is reason for many to question the advancements of new treatment options or procedures. In the United States, we have strict guidelines that must be adhered to in order for a new drug or process to be used in the medical field that protect the people from the possibility of something like this from happening in this era. Even with these checks and balances, we still have members of our society that were alive during the Tuskegee medical experiment from 1932 – 1972. This experiment was marketed to provide african american men free healthcare in exchange for testing of their blood. The majority of these patients had syphilis and were under the impression that they were being treated for this. The patients were purposely not treated to allow the physicians to study the progression of the disease. This misinformation and blatant lack of care for the patients has lead to many in older generations to not trust the healthcare system and its advancements.

 

The research that I have done has not changed my opinion of my topic. I have always been supportive of medical advancements as long as there has been sufficient evidence to prove its efficacy. In my current profession, store manager for Walgreens pharmacy, I can see first hand the benefits of these advancements. The development of programs to sync patient’s medications to be picked up on the same day each month

 

rather than multiple trips each month increases adherence in some groups as much as 24%. I am still cautious to try groundbreaking procedures or medications until I can do my own research to determine the possible negative effects. I have enjoyed researching this topic, it has lead me into reading about many different medical trials and upcoming technology that will be available. As I enter into the Emergency Medical field, it is exciting to learn about new ways patients can be accessed and treated that don’t always involve taking a trip to the emergency room.