The Influence of Technology in the Healthcare Industry: An Essay

This argumentative essay examines the significant impact of technology on the healthcare industry in the 21st century. It highlights the positive aspects, such as the use of smartphones for accessing patient information, cloud computing for easy record access, machine learning for disease prediction, and the Internet of Things for remote patient monitoring and advanced surgical procedures. The essay also acknowledges the negative impacts, including cybersecurity threats to patient data, the potential for inaccurate results from AI systems, and the high costs associated with implementing new technologies, which can increase patient expenses. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing cybersecurity concerns and carefully evaluating new technologies before implementation, acknowledging that while technology offers numerous advantages, there are critical issues to be managed.

Running head: HEALTHCARE AND TECHNOLOGY
Health care and technology in the 21st Century
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Introduction
Lipstein & Kellermann, (2016) stated that technology is revolutionizing almost all sectors in the
society. The application of technology in areas such as health have changed the way both nurses
and patients interact with each other. Even though several technologies have been around for
decades in the health sector, the technology in the 21st century have been the one that have
brought massive changes in the health sector. The reason behind that could be that ideas are
generated daily and people compete to improve the way things are done. In this argumentative
essay, it will elaborate the influence of technology in the health care industry that is developing
rapidly.
The impact of technology in healthcare in the 21st century
The proponents of the idea of technology in the health have multiple positive reasons. The first
idea is that, the 21st century technology have brought up several devices that promote health
activities. The primary known device is a smartphone. Apart from the normal phone functions,
Lye et al, (2018) argued that a smartphone offers multiple computing services that influence the
health care sector. The first way is to access the patient information. For instance, Parati et al,
(2018) elaborated that the smartphones enable installation of apps that patient can register with
their information and doctors can review the patient information including the medical history.
The technology in the 21st century has also brought the idea of cloud computing. Cloud
computing have helped in the health sector by enabling the health care providers to host patient
information on the cloud. When the records are in the cloud it means that both patients and
doctors can access them easily. There is no need to carry big books containing the records.
Hospitals coordinate with each other in a bid to improve the accessibility of information. A

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doctor can get the health history of a patient from more than one provider. However the patients
also access these records at home and can make sound decisions on the best services they should
seek. Another important technical aspect that have come in the 21st century is the use of machine
learning in the health sector according to Noel et al, (2019). With the application of the artificial
intelligence doctors are able to identify and predict outbreak of certain illnesses. Artificial
intelligence is able to analyze the environment based on the gathered data and make prediction.
The 21st century has also brought up the idea of internet of things according to Weeks et al,
(2017). Internet of things is the devices are interconnected. The technology have influenced the
health sector in that the patients do not travel from time to tie to see the doctors in their offices.
The patients can wear the electronic gadgets and the data is transmitted electronically to the
doctor’s office. The technology ae it easier for the people with chronic diseases to manage their
conditions.
Apart from the above ways, the 21st century technology has also brought up multiple changes in
the surgery department. The technology have come up with new devices. The doctors do not
need to cut the bigger portion of the body to access the internal parts but machines are able to
penetrate on a small portion and do the surgery. It reduces the extent of the injury that the patient
would have felt. Besides that, there are also new surgical procedures that have come up
according to Mandl & Kohane, (2017). The doctors watch these videos and see the best method
for the patient. Another issue is that data is easily shared from one individual to another. The
research in the health sector have become easier. Milani et al, (2016) stated that the tools are
available across the continent. The big data that is collected through technology assist researcher
to complete their work quickly. It is easier to identify DNA of individuals without consuming a
lot of time.

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On the other hand, the technologies that have been implemented in the health sector have also
influenced the health sector negatively. One of the main advancement in the sector is digitization
the record keeping method. However, cybercriminals have also advanced themselves with the
latest technology. These criminals target the health records that have been kept online. It proves
to be a greater challenge and negative influence in the technology. These criminals work hard to
bypass the security mechanisms that have been put in place in the health record systems.
There are cases where the cybercriminals steal the patients’ information and use it somewhere
for identity. It is a breach in security. For example, the patients always register with the same
information they use in their bank accounts. When the hackers get access to the information they
can use the information to identify themselves in the banks and steal money in the patient’s
account. Another crucial with the current technology is that some of them do not promise
accurate results. For example, most of the intelligent programs always depend on the data fed on
them according to Mackey et al, (2020). They make decisions based on the data. If the user insert
wrong data accidentally, then the system also give out wrong result. Apart from that, hospitals
spend a lot of money to implement these technologies. Implementation of a technology involves
purchasing the needed equipment such as the software and hiring people to set it up according to
Vermeulen et al, (2016). The cost of these machines is always transferred to the consumer who
is the patient according to Manogaran et al, (2017). Patients have to pay extra cost to cater for the
services. Even those who do appointments of their doctors online they have pay extra cost such
as the data bundles. The patient must also have a smartphone to perform all those activities.
Therefore people from the rural areas are disadvantaged.
In conclusion, while the 21st century technology have brought important improvements in the
nursing sector, there are few issues that should be addressed. From the above essay, it is clear

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that the technology have brought more advantages and disadvantages. However, the most critical
issues is the cybercrime. There should be a way to evaluate the issue in every system before its
implementation.

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References
Lipstein, S. H., & Kellermann, A. L. (2016). Workforce for 21st-century health and health
care. Jama, 316(16), 1665-1666.
Lye, C. T., Forman, H. P., Daniel, J. G., & Krumholz, H. M. (2018). The 21st Century Cures Act
and electronic health records one year later: will patients see the benefits?. Journal of the
American Medical Informatics Association, 25(9), 1218-1220.
Mackey, T., Bekki, H., Matsuzaki, T., & Mizushima, H. (2020). Examining the Potential of
Blockchain Technology to Meet the Needs of 21st-Century Japanese Health Care:
Viewpoint on Use Cases and Policy. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(1),
e13649.
Mandl, K. D., & Kohane, I. S. (2017). A 21st-Century Health IT System-creating a real-world
information economy. N Engl J Med, 376(20), 1905-1907.
Manogaran, G., Lopez, D., Thota, C., Abbas, K. M., Pyne, S., & Sundarasekar, R. (2017). Big
data analytics in healthcare Internet of Things. In Innovative healthcare systems for the
21st century (pp. 263-284). Springer, Cham.
Milani, R. V., Bober, R. M., & Lavie, C. J. (2016). The role of technology in chronic disease
care. Progress in cardiovascular diseases, 58(6), 579-583.
Noel, V. A., Carpenter-Song, E., Acquilano, S. C., Torous, J., & Drake, R. E. (2019). The
technology specialist: a 21st century support role in clinical care. NPJ digital
medicine, 2(1), 1-3.

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Parati, G., Dolan, E., McManus, R. J., & Omboni, S. (2018). Home blood pressure
telemonitoring in the 21st century. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, 20(7), 1128-
1132.
Vermeulen, N., Tamminen, S., & Webster, A. (Eds.). (2016). Bio-objects: life in the 21st
century. Routledge.
Weeks, K., Coben, D., Lum, G., & Pontin, D. (2017). Developing nursing competence: Future
proofing nurses for the changing practice requirements of 21st century healthcare.