The purpose of this article is to inform you about the advantages and disadvantages of Medical Technology in Healthcare.
Table of Contents
In this article, you will learn about the importance and advantages of medical technology, as well as the disadvantages.
Learn how technology impacts students, patients, and even doctors in the medical field.
Prior to discussing the advantages and disadvantages, I would like to speak a little bit about the importance of medical technology.
Here are some applications that improve your health at work.
Healthcare Technology: Why is it Important?
Every field of life today depends on technology in some way. Each day, there are new technological devices made to help make people’s lives easier and to assist them with their work.
Moreover, the medical and healthcare fields are heavily reliant on technology. Several technological devices and equipment have been invented in the healthcare industry.
A wireless brain sensor, digital thermometer, blood glucose meter, pulse oximeter, smart inhaler, and insulin pump are among the medical devices. The purpose of these devices is to improve patient care.
The concept of medical technology includes all the technology used to save lives.
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities use more than 500,000 devices and equipment technology.
A doctor’s only ability before medical technology was to predict diseases, i.e. the illness or problem the patient is afflicted with.
That’s exactly what makes it difficult for doctors to diagnose the exact disease a patient is suffering from.
With the development of medical technologies, it has become much easier for them to diagnose a problem or disease and prescribe a proper treatment to the patients.
This is why technology plays such a crucial role in the medical field. Medical technology offers a lot of benefits, but it also has many disadvantages.
This article discusses medical technology’s advantages as well as its disadvantages. Our lives have been affected both positively and negatively by modern technology.
Below are some advantages of medical technology.
Advantages of Medical Technology in Healthcare
First, let me list one by one the positive aspects of medical technology.
1. Hospital Communication Systems
Patients can contact their doctors or nurses via a variety of devices. A digital device like this is placed in a patient’s room or ward in a hospital.
These devices can be used by patients in case of an emergency. This allows doctors or nurses to see the patient at the right time.
Patients and doctors benefit greatly from technology in this way. By using such a device, the doctor can reach the patients without wasting time and save their lives.
2. How technology improves healthcare in hospitals
In the medical field, technological devices are used a lot to improve the quality of care.
Modern medical devices such as portable defibrillators, drug management systems, MR systems, and electronic IV monitors have improved the quality of healthcare.
3. Medical records of patients in hospitals in electronic format
Now, the patient’s health records are stored electronically. Many hospitals and specialists store the complete health records of patients electronically.
Databases or cloud servers keep records about patients.
The computerized system is faster than keeping records on paper. Instead of paper records, it takes less time.
Disadvantages of Technology in Healthcare
Below are some of the disadvantages of medical technology for people:
1. Patients’ treatment costs increase
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.
Health care has been made more accessible by technology, but also more expensive that the patients cannot afford.
2. Display incorrect results of the patients’ condition
One of the cons of medical technology is sometimes the machinery or technological devices show the wrong result. Sometimes it didn’t show the accurate result of the patients to the doctor.
The technological machines are made by engineers and programmers. Sometimes the errors and bugs come into it. Then it didn’t work properly.
If it shows the wrong result and the doctor gives the wrong diagnosis to the patients then it takes the patient’s life into danger.
This is one of the most dangerous cons of medical technology for the patients
3. Breach of patient information
It is also a disadvantage of medical technology that it lacks information. To protect the privacy of patients, hospitals have laws concerning safety and privacy.
However, technology can break this law.
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.
4. Recovery is time-consuming
Scientists and engineers design the technological machines and gadgets that are used in hospitals for treatments and checkups of patients.
When a fault or error occurs. The machine cannot be fixed because no one has the knowledge of recovering and repairing it.
It required a person with specific knowledge of it. It can be fixed by the engineers who made it.
Therefore, it takes a lot of time to fix and recover the machines.
5. Damage to the cells and organs of the patients
Today, lasering surgeries have become very popular. It has a lot of negative effects on our bodies.
Lasers can cause damage to the body’s cells. The chemicals can damage our body’s other internal organs, which is very harmful,
6. Providing online healthcare to patients
Online treatment is now offered by many doctors. They are contacted online by patients and asked to conduct a diagnosis.
It is not necessary for the patients to go to the doctors’ clinic. The treatment can easily be obtained at home.
In the absence of any examination and analysis of the patient’s medical history, the doctor will give a diagnosis that can be wrong and dangerous to the patient.
7. Treatment by automatic machines
An implanted machine is fixed within the patient’s body. It analyzes the body of a patient and injects the medicine based on how the body is functioning.
Errors and bugs may occur in these machines because they were made using programming.
Furthermore, it can result in the wrong diagnosis being inserted into the body of the patient.
which causes the critical condition and death of the patient.
Important PDF Files:
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3 Comments
I need the author of this article it resonates well with my theses.
Who is the author of this article? What are your sources?
Rehmat Ullah is the author.