HOW HEALTHCARE IS EVOLVING WITH TECHNOLOGY

HOW HEALTHCARE IS EVOLVING WITH TECHNOLOGY
April 4, 2019 Off All,

Position Paper 2 Spring 2019
Assignment Overview:

There is a profusion of new medical technologies that have the potential to fundamentally alter the relationship between consumers and providers. Many of these are wireless, such as smart phone apps or attachments, allowing consumers to monitor aspects of their health and/or transmit the information to providers. Many allow so called “point of care diagnostics”, meaning that they are used without the need to have the consumer or patient travel to a clinic or other health care site. They can be used at remote sites, such as in rural areas or in developing countries. Providers are assisted with smaller, more sophisticated devices for diagnosis and monitoring.

The potential benefits of these advances are enormous. But there are downsides as well. Simply generating information, if it is not used to actually improve health, may do more harm than good. Many of the apps and technologies are “developed in silicon valley for the users in silicon valley”. In other words, they may appeal to techies and to those with more access to sophisticated care, but are unavailable or not even applicable to the health care needs of the majority of the population.

Watch the video:

Video: The empowered you: How healthcare is evolving with technology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuwMPataXtA

After watching the video, your assignment is to select one health care technology that you believe will have the substantial impact over the next 5-10 years. It can be one described in video, or it can be one that you know of or learn about that is not in the video. Describe the technology and give your explanation for why it will be so important. You will have to find some sources from your own research to complete this assignment.

I am using technologies in the broadest sense of the term, from smart phone apps to devices for use in remote areas of the world. In other words, don’t feel limited in your choice.

The length of the submission depends primarily on the extent to which graphs, tables, figures, references and other supplemental material are used. The narrative portion alone should be between 3-4 pages double spaced. Figures, tables, graphs, references are additional. Make sure you have legends to the figures and tables so that they can be interpreted without needing to refer back to the text.

Finally, you should speculate on the potential impact of this technology on health care spending, from the perspective of consumer, payers, and providers.

The format for this paper does not need to follow that suggested for position paper 1.