Technology and Health Care Assignment
Introduction
Now more than ever, the advances in technology have accompanied the health care delivery system in providing efficient and effective treatment and management for a wide range of patients. According to an article on “Medical Technology”, “from gene therapy to tissue engineering to telepresence medicine, the proliferation of new technology promises even greater improvements in patient care, health status, and quality of life” (ct.gov, n. d., p. 89). Nevertheless, the advent of these developments considerably affects the health system, in general. Thus, this paper aims to describe the uses of technology for patient management
and its impact on health care and health status.
Findings
The uses of technology for patient management comprise an array of services that would include new medical and surgical procedures, drugs, medical devices, and new support systems. Indeed, these services had undergone innovative changes during the past years to cater the needs of the patients. These facts are exemplified in the following sections of this paper, as quoted from reliable references. “Surgery is another area of medicine that has been virtually transformed by innovative new techniques and technologies.
The acceptance and refinement of minimally-invasive surgical procedures, improvements in anesthesia, patient demands and the push towards greater cost savings have facilitated the shift of surgical procedures from the traditional hospital setting to free-standing ambulatory surgical centers, outpatient clinics, and physicians’ offices” (Medical Technology, ct.gov, n. d., p.92).
On the other hand, another study called “AstraZeneca Submission” (n. d.) typified the progress in medicines, as we quote, “many examples describe the impact of new medicines on patient symptoms and quality of life:
Advanced cancer is incurable. Many medicines for this devastating disease have provided value to patients and their families by improving their quality of life.
Drugs to prevent nausea, a common side-effect of cancer chemotherapy, can help make the treatment easier to bear both for patients and their families.
In patients with moderate to severe migraine, subcutaneous sumatriptan improved quality of life by more than 20% compared to placebo (61.6% versus 20.6%). Patients on rizatriptan show significantly better responses to three domains of the 24-hourMigraine Quality of Life Questionnaire (social functioning, migraine symptoms and feelings/concerns) compared to patients treated with placebo. (This entry has been quoted from Santanello N C, Polis A B, Hartmaier S L, Kramer M S, Block G A, Silberstein S D, Improvement in migraine-specific quality of life in a clinical trial of rizatriptan. Cephalalgia 17(8):867-872 1997)
