How has medical technology affected clinicians and organizations?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Clinical impact: It is clear that the development of new technologies and pharmaceuticals has vastly improved what physicians can do for their patients and the outcomes that can be achieved. However, this great impact also places a significant amount of stress on physicians in a variety of new ways. Physicians are faced with the increased need to follow expert clinical standards and guidelines in practice. Physicians are also faced with the competitive pressure to be seen by their peers and patients as current on new technologies and pharmaceuticals. As a result, physicians may believe that failure to use the newest products may result in negative impressions by peers with regards to competence and currency. Similarly, physicians may exert pressure on hospitals and medical groups to acquire the latest diagnostic and therapeutic technologies so that the impression of institutional competency and currency is maintained as well.
• Organizational impact: Health care organizations are continuously pressed to maintain the latest technological and pharmaceutical resources despite a lack of detailed evidence that the newest technologies are a substantial improvement over the previous ones.
• Hospitals and clinics are also faced with a growing array of regulatory, compliance, and legal issues that affect quality of care, patient safety, laboratory management, privacy of information, and range of services available. Many of these pressures can only be met by increased use of newer technologies or approaches to patient care.
• One of the most interesting impacts on health care organizations is the use of new technology and products in a marketing and business development sense. Increasingly, hospitals are actively developing new products and service lines to attract new patients. Often, these services or opportunities are centered on a new technology and its use, which further drives the technological imperative for organizational change.