How Technology Shapes Health Care Essay

Most American citizens would agree that modern medicine has drastically changed American Society. The progression of medicine has impacted American lives in multiple ways. It has changed how the United States military uses medicine, how American scientists research medicine, and how everyday American citizens use medicine. Just 100 years ago, the people of the time period would not have been able to comprehend the medical advances that today’s society experiences, and what postmodern societies will continue to experience. Over time, the progression of medicine affected American soldiers during times of war, changed how diseases were discovered and treated, and impacted the way 21st century Americans view medicine and medical professionals.

information. The laws shielding privacy are certainly confusing; it is said that the HIPAA Privacy Rule would be measured the slightest shared denominator for the privacy regulations within that it would require obvious patient consents would only be for the use and disclosures of documents outside the purposes of treatments, payments, or even the functioning activities. The state by-laws are varied within the degrees in which private health info would be secure, in addition

In the preindustrial era, 1800s, the United States fell behind other countries in health services. There was no medical training until around 1870 (Shi & Singh, 2013). Medical training began with students training under the supervision of physicians. Physicians saw patients by making house calls. Health care was delivered in a free market (Shi & Singh, 2013). No one had insurance so costs were out of pocket. For most Americans, this was a problem and some rural areas relied on folk medicine to heal the sick. The medical institutions during this era were not sanitized properly and nurses were not trained to practice safety and hygiene care. The government provided facilities for elderly, chronically ill patients, and clinics that offered free care.

Innovations in mobile technology have brought remote healthcare management to the forefront of advanced medical care. The ability to record the cardiac activity of a patient at home has been available for some time. But that method utilized a recording device worn by the patient, which needed to be brought in to a hospital or doctor’s office for a healthcare professional to analyze. Today, real-time monitoring in the patient’s home is a reality.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how technology has impacted the health care delivery system. Health care technology is advancing at an increasingly rapid rate in the United States, and globally. Patients and providers are witnessing these changes through the use of telehealth, and telemedicine applications. Telehealth, and telemedicine are often used interchangeably, however there is a difference between the two applications. Telehealth is the use of technology to deliver health care, health information, or health education at a distance (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.).

From the days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid era and up until the late 1800’s other countries, France, Germany and Great Britain to name a few, were way ahead of the United States in health care education and practice. This added to the fact that medical

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night, you’re sweating, coughing, and starting to throw up. In today’s world, doctors are available for situations like these. Before the 1800’s, doctors were not as common, and their techniques were questionable. It wasn’t until the 1800’s, that doctors and scientists began discovering and creating medicines and vaccines to help cure sickness and disease. During the 1800’s, there were very many medical advancements. Because there were a lot of medical advancements, there were conflictions such as medical/scientific concerns, ethical concerns, legal changes, and how the economy was affected.

The period of time from 1850-1900 the focus was on epidemics resulting from conditions of food, water, housing and conditions of life (Williams & Torrens, 2008). The next major changes to healthcare in America was from 1900 to World War II the focus was on acute events, infections that affected the individual and not the group, as well as, the beginning of organized trauma care. Chronic diseases were the primary focus from World War II to 1980 focusing on diseases such as heart disease, cancer and stroke. 1980 to the present chronic diseases are still a focus with the addition of Behavioral disorders, as well as, prevention. Attention is paid to environmental hazards and working conditions. There are other factors not mention here, such as, patient education and response to terrorist

“Medical knowledge in the 1860s did not understand bacteria and germs and how they could be transmitted” (“Medicine in the Civil War”Americancivilwar.com). Doctors or surgeons didn’t know about bacteria and germs and how quickly the infections transmitted. “This lack of understanding of germs and bacteria led to the spread of disease that killed more soldiers than enemy bullets during the entire war”(“Medicine in the Civil War” Americancivilwar.com). Doctors back then didn’t have much understanding about infections and that was the cause a lot of soldiers died. Not only the spread of infections where a problem, but also where the surgeries took

advancements in medicine from the Civil war until now. Changes were made in areas dealing

Modern medicine is a fascinating thing. Since the development of medical technology, the total mortality rate has dropped immensely, while the percent of medical care has skyrocketed. There is a clear correlation between the two. But medicine has taken a long time to develop. During the civil war, people died from things that seemed so simple, like diarrhea. As the book The Killer Angels shows, many brave men lost their lives to many different afflictions, including gunshot wounds, disease, and botched surgery.

In the 20th century, there was hardly any medicine, many doctors didn’t understand infections and there were multiply unknown diseases and causes of death. Doctors still needed to learn countless things to understand the medicine field and how it played a role in war. This is very interesting to me because I always wanted to help people and when I’m older I want to be a orthopedic surgeon. Medicine is all around us and the field of it continues to grow. There is always a new medicine or study going on and helping people. For every man that was shot and died on the first line of the war two men died from infections that transferred from the first aid tents. Medicine has come a long from the civil war and will continue to change the face of

An innovation is described as something new or different being introduced into a situation. In healthcare an innovation could be useful or wasteful. There are many ideas that have come into play but only a few ideas really made a difference in the healthcare field. The innovation that I believe made a real difference in the healthcare field is the electronic medical records (EMR). Electronic medical records have recently been introduced in the health care field and so far have been getting a positive feedback.

Health information technology (HIT) involves trading of health information in an electronic format to advance health care, reduce health expenditures, improve work efficiency, decrease medication errors, and make health care more accessible. Maintaining privacy and security of health information is crucial when technology is involved. Health information exchange plays an important role in improving the quality and delivery of health care and cost-effectiveness. “There is very little electronic information sharing among clinicians, hospitals, and other providers, despite considerable investments in health information technology (IT) over the past five years” (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2014, p. 1).

This resolved in only some diseases having a remedy. Knowing how medicine was in the eighteen hundred’s, we can further explore to see how it has changed over the years. Secondly, health care has changed over the years. It has changed in some good ways and yet some bad. One of the good ways health care has changed is that it has increased our life expectancy. According to Dr. John Haughom, an author for Health Catalyst, “From 1900 to 2010, average life expectancy at birth increased from only 49 years to almost 79 years.” One bad way our health care has changed is it costs a lot for people to get the health care they need. Now that the past and present are stated, the differences are evident. Finally, the health care system has changed over the centuries. It has changed mostly for the better. One way that it has changed is our life expectancy has increased since the eighteenth century. While the life expectancy used to be thirty-five to forty, it is now around eighty. Another way the health care has changed is people are not going to the hospital to die. Dr. John Haughom says, “Hospitals were where people went to die. Actually, hospitals were where the poor went to die.” It is evident that the health