Medical Technology Medical Imaging Technology in an information driven world

Technology and technology applications in the medical fields are proliferating faster than proverbial rabbits. The advances in digital transmission of data, together with application of MRI technology and micro circuitry have created opportunities for the medical profession to gain more accurate information, analysis, and prognoses than ever before. MRI machines produce images which are clearer, and virtually three dimensional for the medical staff to use to accumulate diagnostic information. In previous decades, developing the talents to read imaging devices was included in part of broader-based medical disciplines. But today, universities have advanced BS and MS degrees in medical imaging technology.

Like any new field, the perspective value and the actual value brought to the medical field can differ. Increasing technology is not solely a problem for medical community to solve, nor the salvation of the entire field. Technology is a tool, and most important facet which determines the usefulness of the tool is the relationship to it by those who use it. Too often, because of presumptions or poor training, the relationship between potential use and user is problematic. To solve the problem of technology, we must understand the limits of the technology, and also understand the human dynamics which cloud the perspective of those who use new technology. Much has been written about the 'art' and the 'science' of the medical practices. In regard to new and emerging technologies, the effectiveness of new devices is very much determined by both the science of the device, and artfulness by which it is used.

There are five such human characteristics which, like a handbill for a new theater show, entice the field to consider technology as the magic potion of the modern medical world. These factors are:

Everybody loves the new and the shiny, especially when it does fantastic or seemingly inexplicable things that enthrall us. Wonder is a state that throws animals out of equilibrium
The lure of the immediate: The second reason for technology's hold on physicians is that it roots us in the immediate, the now of its presence. The numbers of the readout, images on film, dexterity required for its deployment, technical complexities, tubes, wires, plugs, valves, needles, gauges, mirrors, focusing devices, and on exist in the here and now -- the immediate moment

Unambiguous values: The third aspect of technology, unambiguous values, keeps it employed sometimes even when it is inappropriate. Virtually all technology is marked by similarly unambiguous values. In fact, lack of ambiguity is essential to good medical science.

The avoidance of uncertainty: The central problem that physicians confront is uncertainty, which is the next reason for the dominance of technology. It is doubt that grays hair. There are typically considered two reasons for uncertainty: first, defects in the knowledge of the individual physician, and second, the inadequacies of the profession's knowledge.

Human desire for power: The final reason for the inappropriate use of technology is the power it confers on physicians and their institutions. (Cassel, 1990)

Medical imaging technology can play to all five of these weaknesses in human assumptions. The power and promised convenience of new medical imaging devices have revolutionized the industry. In order to assess likely changes in the medical imaging sector over the next five to ten years, it is necessary first to identify a goal. What is the promise of medical imaging technology? What contribution might it make to the human health field? In what…