Technology in the Healthcare Industry and Its Impact

I. Technology in the healthc atomic number 18 industry today and its impact The state of applied science in the healthcare industry is that it is developing very(prenominal) rapidly. 10 or 20 years ago, you wouldnt be able to find very galore(postnominal) a(prenominal) computers or engine room at a typical doctors office. Most of the stuff was through with(p) with analog equipment and manual paperwork. Now, if you go into a doctors office, you entrust find it laden with move technical equipment and computer applied science. You may not even find a pen or rove on the doctors deskTechnology has the ability to modify the face of the whole healthcare sales talk administration and improve the quality of health and healthcare. Although there are umpteen challenges that it represents, overcoming these challenges go forth lead to a to a greater extent effective and better quality healthcare system in general. First of all, the use of engine room in managing the healthcare s ystem is currently in the stages of being implemented to a great extent. at that direct is a big push to standardize medical records, for example, in an electronic format.The government is currently go incentives for those who convert over to and put in use some form of electronic medical records system (Versel, 2011). They are in like manner putting into place penalties for those who do not by 2015 (U. S. Department of wellness & humans Services, 2011). In terms of the genuine impact on the healthcare system, this breakage to electronic records give not only reduce our premiums for insurance, except also streamline and speed up healthcare delivery twofold. It also cuts administrative cost for healthcare organizations and increases space, as they leave no longer expect to store enormous files or paperwork.They can replace all of that with digital records. In the long term, this transmutation to digital records leave behind benefit everyone involved in the healthcare i ndustry however, in the short term there will be increased costs for all of us. The reason why is because there will be associated costs in developing and buying the systems to house the medical records. Not only that, but the training associated with get everyone up to speed on how to use the impertinent medical records system is an effort that will beat both snip and money.There will in all probability be some resistance to the change, but overall, this is a development in engineering science in the healthcare industry that stands to benefit all parties involved formerly it gets up to speed. An some other way that engineering is qualification an impact on the healthcare industry is in the discussion of uncomplainings. Complex microsurgeries and drug administration are a thing of the past. Now, a lot of the new facilities view as specialized entropy systems and technology that utilize robots to administer medication and perform surgeries with a a good deal higher level of accuracy than humans could do (Feder, 2008).Not only that, but technology and information systems are improving the treatment and diagnosis of forbearings for various diseases. We use technology to analyze blood and waver samples, and also to take a look at internal parts of the body that normally would have required invasive surgery to diagnose and treat. This is clearly a move in the right counseling for the healthcare industry in that the quality of care will improve without teaching human resources how to improve. We just now have to teach the human resources how to use the equipment and analyze the results.Unfortunately, not every facility has the latest and superlative technology. The drawback to this improvement technology has brought is that not all facilities will be able to afford the new equipment square away. There are even places in other countries that really need the equipment the most, but dont have the ability or the resources to afford them. Often at time s, patients will need to be transported to other facilities to get the treatment that they need, and end up worsening in condition or dying on the way.The technology that use ups the healthcare industry does have the power to save lives, however, it will take some time before the rest of the world is up to speed. II. Challenges in implementing technology In addition to the improvements technology is making in the healthcare industry, technology in general also poses some major challenges. For one thing, it does have a major impact on the delivery of healthcare function and their experience. For example, one of the positive points for many people in going to the doctor is the non-clinical aspect of talking and having an open forum in get diagnosis and treatment.With the implementation of technology, however, there is an increasing concern that visits will become less(prenominal) personal and more astir(predicate) the diagnosis and treatment than the actual experience. According to an article in the McKinsey Quarterly, commercially insured patients race to focus on the non-clinical aspects of a visit rather than the clinical (Grote, Newman, & Sutaria, 2007). However, a lot of the patients on Medicare and those that are uninsured tend to care more about the cost of delivery rather than the actual experience. found on this, there is a concern that the shift towards more expert squiffys will change one group of patients whereas they will grateful another. The shift to technological toy withs will certainly mean a lessen cost in delivery. That is for certain. However, the shift to technological solutions wont necessarily mean a decrease in the quality of the visit. More doctors will continue to use technology to drive their treatment methods, but overall it is up to the doctor to make a connection with the patient as the customer relations part of the job.In fact, I feel it will be more about customer relations than the actual treatment once technology has been fully developed. Doctors will spend less time writing down and crunching numbers on the computer and focus more on interacting with the patient and utilizing technology to drive a diagnosis and treatment. Technology will also make diagnosis more transparent as medical imaging devices will make things more visible to both the patient and the doctor. Overall, the shift to technological means will certainly bring on challenges in implementation.Doctors will at first have a hard time in getting up to speed on the new technologies and balancing that with the way they are used to doing things, and integrating it into their daily visits. However, as time goes on this will be less and less of an issue once doctors and patients accept new ways of treatment and technology in general. III. Technology in the development of medicine Technology has always had a place in the development of medicinal treatments and medical devices. Clinical trials are conducted all around the world with he promise of new and better treatments that will cure illnesses and increase lifespan and quality of life. The use of technology in clinical trials is helping to not only get safer and better drugs to the market faster, but also to ensure that there are no problems long term. It used to be that clinical trials were conducted on paper, but now technology is used to ensure both quality of information entry and also the observe of subjects in a trial. Technology is also used to develop tests and experiments more efficiently than they were ever make on paper.The shift to technological means is definitely one of the mainstays in the development of medicine, and is a welcome addition that presents few challenges aside from the training of resources. In terms of development, technology has also helped to make processes more efficiently and easily to allow newer drugs to be developed at a lower cost than onetime(a) traditional methods of conducting trials (ICON, 2011). Budgeting and anal ysis can be used to efficiently allocate supplies and funds, and the actual trial data can be run through information systems in order to analyze the data from a birds eye view and make decisions on its development.The impact of this is likely to be decreased costs for the consumer for drugs and medical products. IV. Recommended plans for the adoption of technology in healthcare organizations As mentioned above, there are likely to be some growing pains in the adoption of technology in the healthcare industry. Doctors will likely have a hard time with the shift to more technological means, and their staff will also likely suffer the same hardships. Ensuring a proper plan to implement a technological solution in a healthcare organization is therefore essential, and ensuring a smooth transition so that the customer is not affected in the process.Therefore, the following are my recommendations for a smooth transition 1. rate the technological solution to implement, and assess what mod ules of the business this will impact. 2. Notify the staff of what will be implemented, and farm a training plan to bring everyone up to speed in advance of the implementation so that no one is taken by surprise. 3. Develop a plan to ensure smooth desegregation into the organization, so that delivery is not compromised. This may include implementing it in part so that the new technology is used alongside the old process that was used to perform the same function. . Develop a timeline for the actual implementation to be complete. This is so that the employees do not continue to follow old methods as a crutch for not getting used to the new technology, and so they know when the new process will be followed. The above 4 items will be absolutely critical in ensuring a smooth transition for any healthcare organization to technological means. The reason why these steps will aid technology implementation is because it ensures that there is enough time to train resources and integrate the technology into the organization.The reason why many organizations have a problem integrating technology is an ineffective change perplexity plan. By introducing it slowly and getting all the required resources up to speed, there should not be an issue in change management. V. Final Thoughts Overall, technology is continuing to make an impact on the healthcare industry in a big way. Right now, there is increasing shift towards using technology to speed up services delivery and management of services.As the world becomes more technologically advanced, there will be an ever-increasing shift towards technological means. The key to implementing technology in any healthcare organization is a change management plan that gets everyone up to speed before the actual technology is implemented, and the communication of this change to all stakeholders involved. erst the change is communicated, steps will need to be taken to ensure training of resources and integration of the technology in th e business practices. In terms of using technology in the healthcare industry, technology will lways continue to impact healthcare in development of products and delivery of services. Technology is always going to be used to develop the Healthcare organizations need to focus on change management and integration of technology rather than just implementation. Works Cited U. S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2011, April 20). CMS EHR Meaningful Use Overview. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from U. S. Department of Health & Human Services Web Page https//www. cms. gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/30_Meaningful_Use. asp Versel, N. 2011, May 31). Physicians Get Meaningful Use earnings Checks. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from InformationWeek Healthcare http//www. informationweek. com/news/healthcare/EMR/229700213 Feder, B. J. (2008, May 4). Prepping Robots to Perform Surgery. New York Times . Grote, K. D. , Newman, J. R. , & Sutaria, S. S. (2007, November). A Better hospital Experience. The McKinsey Quarterly , 1-10. ICON. (2011, May 1). Technology in Clinical Trials. Retrieved June 20, 2011, from Kris Gustafson http//krisagustafson. com/gpage1. html