Technology and Healthcare Demographics of the Global

Technology and Healthcare

Demographics of the global community are rapidly changing so that each year there are more and more seniors within the population base. This has a profound implication on the healthcare system of many regions since a large number of elderly citizens will be spending their lives in the confines of their home, and some may have chronic illness that require continuous monitoring. Clinical telemedicine is one way to offer greater services to rural or homebound populations. Indeed, a variety of technological advances have made it possible to change the paradigm of healthcare. Clinical information systems, for instance, have expanded in scope and depth. Increased processor speeds and data storage devices have made it possible to collect more data than ever on the detailed encounters that make up the provider-patient care delivery process, and present it more effectively to a wider range of users. Healthcare monitoring is part of the technical relationship of telemedicine, which is the use of electronic information and communication technology to provide and support distance-based healthcare. The physician or monitoring organization can perform interventions, diagnostic, and treatment decisions from the data they receive, and is particularly useful in populations of aging individuals or those in areas not necessarily near a healthcare facility. In telemedicine, two participants are involved, the caregivers and patients with four common uses: 1) Teleassistance -- Physician assists a patient who is geographically isolated; 2) Telemonitoring -- Transmission of medical information for monitoring purposes; 3) Teleconsultation (patient -- caregiver) -- Patients seeking medical advice; 4) Teleconsultation (caregiver -- caregiver) -- One caregiver consulting with another or one GP with specialist (What is Telemedicine? 2013; Choi, et al., 2009).

Part 2 - Some critics point out that there are problems with telemedicine and remote management of illness. They believe that the initial costs are higher (but in comparison to what?), that the effectiveness of telemedicine depends on the type of disease and is unproven longitudinally and finally, that it requires a certain buy-in from physicians who may, or may not wish to participate. Certainly, like with all technologies, there is a learning curve for both healthcare personnel and patients. Everyone involved must get used to a new form of information management. However, e-mail and the Internet were once new, and familiarity and training are not reasons to halt adopting new technologies that have the potential to save lives (Hatcher and Heetebry, 2004).

Part 3 - the majority of both patients and caregivers surveyed find that it is not only important to implement telemedicine, but almost necessary in some areas. For them: 1) Patients want to improve the quality of their live; 2) Telemedicine improves autonomy of a patient and gives them greater access to healthcare; 3) Physicians and healthcare professionals want to improve quality of care without extending costs; 4) Telemedicine makes better use of physician resources, particularly in rural areas; 5) Healthcare financing organization need to decrease costs of healthcare. As the population globally ages, there are more individuals needing quality care and, in some areas, not enough resources (Field and Grigsby, 2002).

In any modern healthcare concern, however, there are a number of complex paradigms that interact with one another to provide a picture of "total healthcare." For instance, almost all research points to the positive nature of a relationship between the caregiver and patient to aid in trust and healing. Telemedicine is meant to enhance care, not to diminish a relationship. Additionally, guidelines for privacy, ethics, and legal aspects must remain the same, only taking in to account a remote system and use of telemonitoring as a tool.

Part 4- Key resources in the adapting of telemonitoring would include the healthcare organization (a fiscal hard goods asset), physicians and nurses who would regularly use the system, patient buy-in, community buy in, and insurance reimbursement or coverage acceptance. This would be particularly necessary for overcoming the view that telemonitoring equals impersonal care. TM can also be associated with a personal and "high-touch" provider-patient relationship. This is possible because society needs not accept that medical technology is singularly responsible for the changes that occur within the patient-doctor relationship. Nor do we need to accept that advanced technological systems (machines, tests, etc.) have any focused bearing on the type of patient conversation that should be expected (Bauer in Luppicini and Addell, 2008).