It has been universally acknowledged that there is a rise in the use of technological innovations in the medical sector, which improves diagnosis and treatment. This essay will first explore the upsides and downsides of this prevailing tendency and then delve into how the advantages of applying technological advancements in the medical field tend to overshadow the potential drawbacks.
There are noteworthy disadvantages associated with the trend of using technology in the healthcare sector. To begin with, high-tech medical equipment usually incurs high installation and operating costs, significantly increasing public medical services fees. As a result, these additional fees could place a financial burden on households, especially on low-income ones. Additionally, healthcare centers such as hospitals are now using databases to manage patients’ medical records, potentially leading to a large-scale data breach if the security system is not sufficiently robust. These privacy data could be used for malicious purposes, including the trading of personal data, directly impacting patients’ lives in a negative way. For example, in early 2024, Change Healthcare suffered a major ransomware attack that exposed the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of 8.9 million individuals, costing the company billions and resulting in a 22 million dollars ransom payment.
However, I firmly maintain that the benefits of applying technology to the healthcare sector overshadow its limitations. Firstly, renovated medical equipment using technology could enhance accuracy in diagnosis, as technological advancements have the ability to monitor every metric and the slightest change in patients, while presenting these data more visually to the doctor. As the accuracy has been enhanced, doctors could adjust treatment regimen and prescription to best suit the patients’ condition, potentially increasing their recovery chances. Additionally, these adjustments could also be supported by technologies, which significantly decrease the amount of time spent on these processes. As a result, diagnosis and treatment are faster and more efficient, possibly boosting public health. For instance, devices like Apple Watch continuously monitor heart rhythms and track blood sugar for diabetic patients, enabling doctors to oversee health metrics remotely without requiring frequent clinic visits, as well as be alerted if there are any dangerous irregularities. This underscores why technological innovations play a crucial role in the modern healthcare field nowadays.
In conclusion, although using technology in the medical field can lead to excessive cost and data breach, the overwhelming merits of this prevailing trend, from enhancing diagnosis to boosting treatment, clearly outweigh its associated drawbacks.