Jenna Fox Technology

The level of technology that concerns the health of people in the United States has grown dramatically in the last twenty years. With this new wave of advanced technology numerous controversies have risen up into the public eye. At the top of this list, in health technology is the materials and methods used in keeping humans alive. There are many different viewpoints on how far technology should be allowed to go. Technology cannot effect the patient’s way of life.

these devices. In so doing it had extended the lives, and improved the quality of life, for hundreds of

People do not realize how blessed they are to have the medical advances and medical technology

With new developments in technology in healthcare also comes with great responsibility from an ethical standpoint. Decisions can be difficult, ethically when taking into consideration of the life, health or amount of money needed for the type of care given to a patient. Here are a few examples of medical technology perceptions that have changed of the last decade ethically:

Advances in medical technology and processes are a double edged sword in regards to patient Quality of Life. Chronic-disease management has changed such that previously, people who would have died are now being kept alive due to the technological and medical advances dramatically increasing life expectancies over the centuries. With the advent of chemotherapy, surgeries and medications, life expectancy can sometimes be prolonged at the expense of Quality of Life.

It was said by the CEO of Apple that, “Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.” (Iz Quotes) In this day and age, technology has infiltrated society in more ways than can be imagined, even in terms of the medical field. Biomedical technology is the use of new advances in terms of computers and electronic devices to assist in saving lives and making new strides in medicine. The question remains, however, whether this technology helps or hurts people in the long run, and whether the use of it should be restricted. This is a relevant issue in society for the reason that it can help save people, or it can hurt or possibly even take their lives. (ProQuest Staff) It also raises the question as to whether technology is completely replacing people. The use of biomedical technology should be restrained, but not completely eliminated, for the reason that it improves the way that doctors and physicians are able to care for the sick. Nevertheless, it is important to realize that the use of technology should come second to the actual doctors, since the skills truly lie in the hands of the people that use them, rather than in today’s advanced technology, as can be ascertained from Mr. Jobs’ quote. Technology can enhance people, however, moderation

Keeping a person alive by excessive treatment might devastate the family and make the dying suffer tremendously in the end. “Advance medical technology that seems to one person a godsend, extending life, may seem to another a curse that only prolong dying. Dignity can be devalued amid technology focused solely on the biological organism.”

Since the turn of the 20th century, modern medicine has made significant advancements in treating the progression of disease. Diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, and several cancers are easily managed in today’s medical community. Yet, just a century ago, those diseases would ensure a swift and unfortunate demise. Since the mid 1960s, the emergence of technological advancements and treatment modalities has increased the U.S. population’s life expectancy. Presently, life can be extended for years due to the development and use of ventilators, gastro-intestinal tubes, and hemodialysis in terminally ill patients. With of the spark medical innovation, an unanticipated dilemma has developed within the holds of modern medicine and the U.S.

Going back hundreds of years, we can trace the history of health care. Although it has evolved over the years, it all has a common goal; to heal those who are ill. Technology is one of the major evolutions and now plays a big role in the health care system. It helps patients to be more involved with their healthcare. They can make appointments, follow up on test results, and contact their doctors. Back then, they didn’t even have all the medicine we have now, let alone the technology. We can only imagine what is in store for the future.

Medical technology encompasses a wide range of healthcare products and is used to diagnose, monitor, and treat diseases or medical conditions that affect humans. This may included but not limited too, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and medical equipment. Such technologies are intended to improve the quality of healthcare delivered through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and reductions in hospital stays and rehabilitation times. Recent advances in medical technology have also focused on cost reduction. Medical technology may include medical devices, information technology, biotech, and healthcare services. The impacts of medical technology may involve social and ethical issues. For example physicians may seek objective information from technology rather than listening to subjective patient reports. A major contributor of healthcare expenditure in America is the advancement of medical technology. According to several studies it is shown that there is a correlation between the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and money allocated to healthcare. One of the leading theories is that medical technology is growing faster than expected.

Technology has open the possibility for new advancements and creations in the world. In medicine, for example, technology has helped increase lifespan, improved our life conditions and reduce the risk of harmful diseases. However, for some patients, technology has also been accompanied with prolonged suffering and with devastating physical and medical expenses. With more people connected today to CPR machines during their time of deaths, many individuals are having a harder time to achieve a “death with dignity”, in part because technology is disrupting both the quality of living of patients and the control they have over their own bodies. That being said, given this new technological context, can it be possible for patients to

As today’s technology is changing, some of the most major effects of it are superior advances in the medical field. One advance in the medical field is tissue engineering. It is being developed for use in regenerative medicine and soon to be in wider use for other treatments. Tissue engineering’s goal for the future is for the medicine to be able to stimulate other cells around the damage area of the body to get them to grow and produce living tissue (Sciencedaily). Another medical advancement is the monitoring systems and how hospitals can better track for problems and signs of an emergency. This can also help the surgeons decide how to stitch up a patient for best recovery time (Sciencedaily). As technology keeps progressing, another medical advancement is the way surgeons are doing operations. Today, for complex surgeries, surgeons now will get help from the use of a robot for accurate procedures; this will help with the size of the incision and keep the recovery time shorter than during standard surgery.

This excitement can be good, bad or in some cases, misleading. The medical field has vastly made its way into a huge money pit of enduring “technological advances”. But, the advances are sometimes not always what they seem to be. Looking ahead, the questions we need to ask ourselves would be: are we getting to excited too quickly when it comes to the amount of anticipation we have about the advances in the medical field? Is there a chance we look for the potential of these “revenge effects” with it all? While trying to discover an answer to these questions, I feel as though people need to take a step back and realize that we will never know right now, what these advances will do for us in the near future whether its change us negatively or positively. Harmful or safe, watchfulness should always be done when it comes to medical technology. Thankfully, the knowledge and skills used with the equipment, has and will continue to save millions and millions of lives now and in the future. The diagnosis of new vaccines and miracle drugs has increased the existence of this population by about twenty years.

There have been many advances in the medical field such as; anesthesia, drugs, machines, etc. This has helped the doctors find alternative solutions to problems, and in return has helped them save more lives. In the article “Medicine” by Britannica, “Many new advances in anesthesia, and these in turn depend upon engineers who have devised machines and chemists produced new drugs. Other operations are made possible by new materials, such as the alloys and plastics that are used to make artificial hip and knee joints.” Advances in the medical field have truly helped modern doctors. Without the medicine, machines, technology they have now there’s no way the doctors could have saved the same amount of lives. As Brian Ward, the author of “The Story of Medicine”, states in his book, “Despite opposition, revolutionary scientists and doctors persevered and made some ground breaking discoveries,” (Ward 22). Even though the doctors during the Renaissance had little technology, they still made discoveries that impacted the medical field. The discoveries made by the Renaissance doctors were life saving. However, with the given technology that is commonly found in modern day society doctors are able to impact the medical and scientific fields and by doing so, save more lives than thought possible during the Renaissance. Within the article “Medicine” written by Britannica, it shows the importance of, “Many other developments in modern surgical treatment rest on a firm basis of experimentation, often first in animals but also in humans; among them are Renal dialysis (artificial kidney), arterial bypass operations, embryo implantation, and exchange transfusions.” Although testing on animals is cruel, it shows that modern doctors were not just experimenting on people. The modern doctors had a thought process to reduce the amount of deaths due to

Obviously these discoveries make great contribution to modern medicine. They not only raise patients’ survival rates but also relieve the pain for patients. We could not image how the hospital would be without these greatest discoveries. So it is obvious that discovery in medical field is a good thing.