A technological imperative is just one of many conceptual tools (e.g., economic, preventive, and epidemiological) that offer a convenient framework for considering the health care realm. Readers of Victor Hugo’s novel Notre-Dame de Paris may recall his vivid characterization of the hunchback Quasimodo. It is less likely, however, that there will be any similar recollection of a depiction in the book of cathedral archdeacon Claude Frollo, whose famous slogan was “Ceci tuera cela” (This will kill that), which occurred to him as he touches a printed book while glancing nostalgically at the church towers. “This” (signifies the book), while “that” (represents the medieval cathedral and the entire world it symbolizes).
What Frollo had in mind is the disruptive potential of technological innovations. The invention of the printing press meant that the flock of spiritual followers no longer would have to rely exclusively on clerical proclamations to discover and interpret information, which heretofore would have remained unknown to them. As noted in the book, Creative Economy and Culture: Challenges, Changes and Futures for the Creative Industries, a chapter on Ceci tuera cela points out that democratic, secular print culture would supersede the authority of the church, along with the system of beliefs and images embodied in the great edifice where action is portrayed.
It appears reasonably clear that a constant array of technological innovations has the potential to have a transformative influence on the health care sphere. Many new developments are intended as improvements. Nonetheless, it is the unintended negative consequences of various changes to the existing order that sometimes prove to be worrisome challenges due to the prospect that technological advances often bring in their wake many impacts of a mixed blessings nature.
February 2019 marked the 10th anniversary of passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, an effort to accelerate the conversion of physician and hospital paper charts to electronic records, but widespread adoption not always has been accompanied by projected benefits. Instead, EMRs are associated with the onset of physician “burnout” and also in disrupting effective communication patterns between clinicians and their patients. Moreover, a finding reported in the November 2019 issue of the journal Health Affairs indicated that while hospitals gave 95% of discharged patients access to view, download, and transmit their information, only about 10% of those with access used it. Underuse can produce its own train of undesirable side effects.
As more applications are integrated into everyday life, artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to have a globally transformative influence on economic and social structures similar to the effect that other general‐purpose technologies, such as electricity have had. A manuscript in the November 2019 issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine introduces a cautionary note, however, regarding key issues for occupational safety and health, along with selected implications that include job displacement from automation and management of human‐machine interactions. Hence, as technology unfolds, it continues to warrant close scrutiny.
More Articles from November 2019 TRENDS
TECHNOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE CHALLENGES
Indicates why technological developments warrant closer scrutiny from the standpoint of attempting to prevent unwanted negative consequences and disruptive impacts. Read More
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Phyllis King’s two-year term as ASAHP’s President became effective on October 18, 2019. She offers her thoughts on what she would like to see occur during that time period. Read More
MASS MEDIA FOCUS ON CAPITOL HILL
While the mass media devote considerable attention to efforts to impeach President Trump, reauthorizing both the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and funding for historically black colleges and other minority-serving institutions provide examples of other initiatives deserving of increased focus. Read More
HEALTH REFORM DEVELOPMENTS
Discusses proposed health reform legislation by candidates running for the presidency, hospital compare data on quality, and a new hospital price disclosure rule. Read More
DEVELOPMENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Summarizes federal rules involving student assistance, recognition of accrediting agencies, and state agency procedures. Read More
QUICK STAT (SHORT, TIMELY, AND TOPICAL)
Adolescents’ Engagement With Unhealthy Food And Beverage Brands On Social Media
Emergency Department Visits For Sport And Recreational Activities
3D Bioprinting Of A Vascularized And Perfusable Skin Graft Using Human Keratinocytes
Jointly Optimized Microscope Hardware For Accurate Image Classification Read More
AVAILABLE RESOURCES ACCESSIBLE ELECTRONICALLY
Dialogue About The Workforce For Population Health Improvement
Economic Consequences Of Millennial Health
Driving Toward Age-Friendly Care For The Future Read More
WHY AN INSECT APOCALYPSE MATTERS
Mentions the enormous influence that insects have on all other plant and animal species, and how the application of ants’ traffic management skills can benefit humans. Read More
HOUSING DISCRIMINATION AND RACIAL CANCER DISPARITIES
Refers to how mortgage discrimination is associated with larger black‐to‐white cancer mortality disparities resulting from a tendency to reduce black home ownership and increase the likelihood of renting, which has a negative effect on the accumulation of home equity that limits resources available to offset the financial burden of cancer. Read More