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Emerging Trends of Technology Adoption In Singapore Health Sector

Introduction

Adoption of technology in health sector is one of the best things that health service organisations harness since with technology there is creation of stable models of service delivery which boost the capability of providing quick, safe, effective and affordable health services. Adoption of technology has both positive and negative repercussions on health as expounded below.

Ways in which technology has influenced the health sector positively

Technology helps patients to maintain their health

An increasing number of mobile apps and gadgets are coming up to help people keep fit, sleep appropriately and feed healthily. Some of these are like lark, a silent alarm and sleep monitor that analyzes sleep quality and offers suggestions to help one in improving their sleeping habits.

Technology connects doctors and patients

Through technology patients can now contact their doctors online and over phone through Skype, video conferencing etc, thus saving them a long, tedious and expensive trip to see them. This medical advice comes from the city’s qualified specialists only.

Provides online training tools for healthcare experts

Tools such as mobile devices will make training of health professionals on how to use ICT devices easier and convenient. Also it will improve the interaction between healthcare experts undergoing the same training without distraction from their day to day activities.

Helps in integration of decision support tools in hospitals

The clinical and administrative staff has a lot of issues they have to deal with in order to keep the hospital running smoothly. This also involves making crucial decisions concerning the hospital in general. Through use of technology different departments can be able to communicate through their hospital’s system thus making viable decisions.

Also by combining medical knowledge with the patient’s data, clinical decision support can be created that give certain advice to the medical experts. This improves the patient’s result and minimizes errors.

Security assurance and privacy

Data security and identification of patients are some of the very critical procedures in health care. With technology adoption, a viable patient identification system helps hospitals to prevent identity frauds and also minimizes errors occurring through mistaken identity. Also with the adoption of automated workflows and information sharing in the various departments, the health service team ensures provision of efficient services due to the enabled service provider identification.

Error reduction

Human is to error no matter how much careful one can be as they undertake a particular task. Due to the fear of committing errors, health care experts tend to make patients undergo several medical tests which can be expensive and time consuming.

Luckily technology adoption has helped into reducing the rate of which errors occur by use of various systems and machines.

Facilitates connection amongst doctors

Social networking between doctors can improve on how they take care of their patients since doctors can collaborate online on a complex case. There exist online platforms and apps dedicated inly to medical experts to enhance such services.

Demerits of technology adoption in health sector

Security

One of the greatest disadvantage of adopting technology in health sector is the security of the health records; hacking of information, loss through crash and illegal downloads are some on the major security threats.

Misdiagnosis

Due to the availability of health information online, people tend to replace physician in favor of the online information. This may lead to misdiagnosis which can cause health crisis if not watched over.

Barriers in technology implementation in health care

Financial problems

Implementation of technology in a health facility is expensive and time consuming.

Institutional problems

There is normally some differences in medical terminologies and the compilation of the patients information. There is lack of implemented standards that enable communication between various systems.

Social problems

Some patients get concerned about the safety of their health information.

User problems (Resistance)

This is where the consumers find it hard to adjust to new trend in technology.

Infrastructure problems

This is where there is need to embrace the technology but there are no facilities to welcome the implementation processes.

Conclusion

It is clear that technology adoption in health care is one of the best transformations that are happening today although there are some challenges that tag along it.

This is because technology comes with assurance of better and more accurate services which can be acquired easily and at a lesser expense. So as to fully enjoy the benefits that come with technology adoption in health, one has to come up with best ways so it can properly align with the organization’s goals.

In order for the adoption of technology in health sector to obtain a healthy reception, there should be a team effort spearheaded by the leadership of the health sector. All the stake holders of change management in the health sector should clearly understand their roles in introducing change in the sector. This will ensure that the implementation process faces minimal resistance.

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