The future of healthcare depends on the balance of sacrifices and benefits that come with technological advancements. Technology has ushered in a new era of electronic convenience that consumers are interested in applying to their medical needs. New technology also facilitates medical breakthroughs, while uncured illnesses provide an insatiable drive for technology to develop a cure. With each advance, both administratively and procedurally, time tests the true utility of technology and its shortfalls. To predict how healthcare will be transformed by technology, the usefulness and application of technology in administrative interface and medical procedures must be examined.
Technology has developed medical record keeping and communication between patient and provider. Electronic health records were created in the late 20th century to standardize records, improve record quality, streamline efficiency, and increase medical record interoperability. Additionally, patients can interface with their provider from across the globe using facetime or secure messaging. The benefits of such advancements cater to the convenience and efficiency of the modern world, where information and communication are ubiquitous. Such advances come with several technological burdens, but among the highest personal costs are security of patient personal information and the sacrifice of interpersonal interaction between patient and provider. These advances point the future of healthcare towards an increasingly efficient and streamlined system that will benefit the busy lifestyles of many and provide more opportunities for patients to connect with their providers electronically. The price will be at the cost of the intangible qualities a person receives from a patient-provider relationship.
Anyone with a family member suffering from a debilitating disease can attest to the usefulness of groundbreaking medical procedures. Historically however, the practice of innovative medical technology has not been a smooth transition from its genesis in the laboratory to clinical application. Ethically and financially, the cost of medical advancement can be high. The first patients to receive novel treatment take on an unknown risk, similar to Mr. Washkansky when he received the first heart transplant. Another ethical hurdle arises when the treatment costs allow for only the elite, instead of those who need the treatment most. Financially, the healthcare system can end up funding an expensive, limited rescue over an inexpensive, broadly applied prevention. The efficacy of new medical treatments remains beneficial to advancing the medical field and treatment of patients suffering devastating illnesses; however, the future of technological advances in medicine has the potential of slowly and discretely blurring the lines between technology and humanity.
As the future of medicine unfolds, technology provides a double-edged sword of noble medical achievements and personal, ethical, and financial cost. Society can expect the arm of healthcare to extend through technology, but the patient-provider interpersonal relationship to suffer as treatment takes an electronic shift. Healthcare will also be impacted by the piecemeal integration of groundbreaking treatment that will most likely intercalate into society through those who can afford it. Inevitably the future of healthcare will be shaped by technology according to the cost society is willing to pay for the technological benefits.