Running Head: HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY 1

Health and Technology

YuJeong Oh (G01100980)

IT 104-K01(2K2)

11 April 2017

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Introduction

What is Information Technology, and why is it so important? Information Technology,

known as IT, can be anything which is using both computer hardware and software to store,

search and share information. These days, people are living with IT, devices like smartphones

and computers which is making our lives comfortable and efficient. For example, in a hospital,

having 100 patients record written in a paper will take too much space, and hard to find ones

record. However, if you use IT, you will only need one computer instead of a lot of unorganized

paper taking spaces. Also, when doctors want to share their patients information in an

emergency, they do not need a lot of time to share a patients information. They just need to find

ones information and authorize other doctors to see it.

With such benefits, IT in healthcare can be one of the best prospective technologies.

Ones information is very crucial in healthcare, and everyone has different symptoms, allergic

and background. So, based on IT, patients information can be stored and shared with doctors

whenever you need.

History of Healthcare

Comparing to other areas, use of technology in healthcare has only been twenty to thirty

years. Going back to history, we can simply notice that information technology would affect the

healthcare in positive ways. By understanding few people from our history, we can see why

technology is important for healthcare. Hippocrates, a father of medicine, has about 70 works

stored and categorized, including deadly diseases and complicated herbal remedies, to share with

many people (McLean, 2013). By his well-organized works, he could be one of the best people

in healthcare. Another example, the time when cholera was outbroken, people did not know why

people are dying and what is the disease. John Snow, he also did not know what the disease was,
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but he collected data from people and use those data in database type of format so that he could

find out what was causing the sickness (McLean, 2013). William Farr, using a statistical method,

he could categorize, and clarify the 27 fatal diseases. A fabulous idea of him was that he wanted

to create common term between medical provider so that they can share the information

(McLean, 2013). Lastly, Nightingale, while she was caring soldiers of the war, using statistics,

and pictorial format, she categorized and presented of her patients data so she could find out that

it was not only wound from war but disease or infection killed many soldiers during a war.

(McLean, 2013). By their effort of, storing, retrieving, categorizing, data and information, they

could be one of the best people in medicine.

Healthcare with Technology

Data/Information

Looking at the examples from the history, you can find out that data storing, categorizing,

and sharing has always been the most important part of healthcare. By using a smaller and

documentation computer, it makes healthcare possible to share and store accurate data of

patients. Furthermore, like William wanted, doctors now have a common term; they can also

share common information within few minutes wherever and whenever they are if they have

access by using technology. Improvement of a personal computer also makes people able to

retrieve their symptoms on the internet and find the best doctor in the area, or just simply get

medicine by themselves. Development of storing system enables the use of data storing

technology, which we call electronic health records or EHR (Reynolds, 2012). EHR enables

doctors to give a patient right treatments based on their records, without taking another time

taking simple medical tests. Furthermore, with more advanced data documentation, and
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categorizing, we are now able to check the possibility of diseases or cancer by tracking our

family history and gene. More advanced data with adequate storage make humans live longer.

Advanced Machine

There are many amazing and attractive machines in healthcare, but I think

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or a CPR machine is one of the most valuable machines in

healthcare. People who are getting a heart attack is increasing, but there are not that many people

who can help those people immediately. Even some know how to do CPR, it will take too much

energy from an assistant, and it might also hurt a patient. However, with CPR machine, known as

Automated external defibrillator or AED, now everyone can save ones life without hurting

anyone. Based on the collected data and information in the machine, a machine will guide people

and save a patients life by stimulating patients heart by electricity adequately. What people

need to do is just to follow the guide of AED and call 911. AED can save both helpers energy

and patients lives.

Another beneficial of IT in healthcare is a compact blood checker. Many people have

diabetes these days, however, before the compact blood checker existed, they needed to go to the

hospital often, just to check their conditions. However, with more advanced technology, people

just need to use a simple machine, which enables people to check their blood condition where

ever, whenever they need. This machine will be able to give patients accurate information to

treat themselves, like by injecting themselves.

With more advanced IT, we can adapt virtual reality, wearable devices, 3D printer and

Internet of Thing in healthcare (The Medical Futurist, 2016).For instance, by using virtual

reality, we can experience a hospital in advanced and choose the best one for you (The Medical

Futurist, 2016). You will also be able to find your daily lifestyles and change or fix your
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lifestyles for a better life, using a wearable device (The Medical Futurist, 2016). One of the most

prospecting areas these days, 3D printing is also attached to healthcare. For example, with the

information of persons liver tissues, they print those tissues out by using bioprinting. They can

use these tissues to test the toxicity of medicine, rather than using animals (The Medical Futurist,

2016). It is better to human and animals both by using accurate humans tissue, not other

creatures body, it prevents side effects, and it also saves animals from experiments. With

developed computer and machines with well categorized and advanced IT, healthcare will be

more convenient, and it will attach to our daily lives to help more people in the world.

Ethical Issues in Healthcare Privacy

IT in healthcare improved the accessibility of health record, with well-organized storage,

which enables to help to reduce the number of loss of information and errors (Reynolds, 2012, p.

38). However, there are negative sides of these benefits. Since it is mainly dealing with ones

information, there are ethical issues, like privacy. The use of EHR, and since retrieving system is

widely spread, there is a possibility, that this shared of health information by employers, schools,

firms, and agencies should increase the potential of unauthorized data by hackers, or misuse of

the data (Reynolds, 2012, p. 140). Also, insurance organizations are taking advantages

mentioning this privacy issue and increasing the price of without any development of its system.

Improvement of health insurance to aid the patients results in privacy issue too. Since there was a

conflict between business and EHR, government restrict the access to the health information

(Reynolds, 2012, p. 140). This restrict blocks patients immediate treatments, because even when

the emergency happens, doctors do not have access without additional authentication to access

from who are not in charge of their treatments (Reynolds, 2012, p. 140). Lastly, there is also a

person stealing an electronic storage device, which has thousands of medical records (Reynolds,
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2012, p. 182). Thousands of patients information might be harmed just by one device

(Reynolds, 2012, p. 182). Development of technology has helped our data storage and retrieving

system, however, if we lose one device, we can lose thousands or more information at a time.

Conclusion

As IT has improved, healthcare, which is mostly based on information and data sharing,

is affected a lot. IT make it possible to have better healthcare, like by using EHR and other

advanced machines. With the improvement of IT in healthcare, a doctor can share and save a

patients information effectively. At the same time, a patients can expect better healthcare by

their information and more advanced machines. However, ethical issues in healthcare are

remaining almost the same while IT has improved tremendously. Increasing number of

information and technology is now threatening ones privacy and doctors access to it. For better

healthcare in the future, we need more strong information systems followed by developing IT.
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References

Christensson, P. (2006). IT Definition. Retrieved 2017, Mar 22, from https://techterms.com,

In this references.com cite, I could get the brief information about IT definition. It

explained IT by giving examples also includes a brief explanation. In this cite, they

emphasize information, data by giving a cloud storage as an example. Even though it has

a nice example, it is not enough for me to get what is the definition. And it has only one

example so that it was hard for me to get an idea from this cite.

Information technology. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2017, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology

I could understand the term for Information technology from this cite. It explains that it is

the new term, but people needed since long time ago. The cite also including history of

computer technology. Cite is based on computer IT. As a person who wanted more

examples, it was lack of information but I could learn the basic knowledge from it.

McLean, (2013, January 26). Retrieved March 29, 2017, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzLy58dhsXc

In this video lecture, I could define informatics, which I was confused before. And also

the most important, I could learn the history of healthcare informatics. History was very

useful since it was all I want, the importance of data using. I liked the lecture, since it was

well organized with picture with words behind. Video is also describing the evolution of

health information technology which is helpful.

The Medical Futurist. (2016, January 08). Retrieved March 31, 2017, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exVUmuMthps
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He is mentioning 10 amazing advance IT technology in healthcare. I could experience

more IT technology in healthcare. Most interesting part is bioprinting. IoT in healthcare

was interesting since I saw a lot in movies and did not know it was IoT. It was helpful

video in general.

Jamshed, N., Ozair, F., Sharma, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2015). Ethical issues in electronic health

records: A general overview. Perspectives in Clinical Research, 6(2), 73.

doi:10.4103/2229-3485.153997

In this article, I was able to clarify advantages of electronic health record. They are also

mentioning that privacy is also important. There's an example of India healthcare with

definitive guideline for EHR since they have many people. I wanted more specific about

privacy issue, but I chose benefits of EHR. EHR benefits are very well explained.

Reynolds, G. W. (2012). Ethics in information technology. Boston, MA: Course Technology,

Cengage Learning.

In this book, I could learn what is ethics. They refer many different ethic in different

situations. This book also has the specific privacy issue in healthcare, which I wanted. I

could learn the specific situation that healthcare is having. I could not only learn about

healthcare but also general ethic in technology uses.