Essay Sample on Impact of Technology on Global Health

Introduction

Technological innovations in medicine are one of the vast improvements made in universal health care in recent years. The health problems that weigh heavily in developing countries continue to prevail despite the nurses' and medical practitioners' responses to improved medical healthcare. The importance of digital technology as a transformative tool to drive progress in enhancing global health results has been acknowledged by the global health community in this respect. Digital technological interventions can eliminate unnecessary visits to hospitals through the minimization of negative externalities. For instance, instead of sending a pregnant woman over long distances to deliver her child in the hospital, a doctor or qualified nurse may train a community health worker to assist a mother in childbirth. This paper examines how technology can address global health challenges, examples of global health technological initiatives, and nursing's role in supporting global health. To do so, I have organized my paper into different sections providing answers to specific questions,

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Technology in Improving Health Care in Developing Countries

Digital health technologies are used to decrease inefficiencies, expand coverage, minimize costs, improve quality, and personalize treatment (Ronquillo and Zuckerman, 2017). Affordable technology, like digital cell phone apps, has been used to eliminate diseases by supplying populations with knowledge on preventive steps, including conservative burial procedures and how to perform contact tracing. In turn, public awareness has been created on various disease infections. Developing countries have now been able to reach a massive population through digital health technologies. Mobile applications have come in handy in educating the masses about the viruses and avoiding their spread since the emergence of Ebola and now the Covid-19. Technological interventions can be used to lessen treatment costs incurred during the treatment of diseases such as malaria. According to Health Care Poverty Action, in Sierra Leone, the approximate medical expenses of an infant suffering from malaria equal half a month's average salary ("Malaria Prevention and Treatment on 20th April by Sorsha Roberts, "n.d., p. 4). Technological interventions such as the introduction of bed nets have helped reduce the cost of treating the disease in developing countries. Prevention is always better than cure.

Technology in Addressing Global Health Challenges

Technological interventions have led to several benefits in the field of medicine. Improved medical care is one of the advantages that has come with technology. Better medical equipment has been developed through advanced technology, allowing medical practitioners to provide more comprehensive care. With better treatment, different people's quality of life has been improved, especially those suffering from long-term illnesses. Today, artificial kidney hemodialyzer is utilized to remove waste and extra fluids from the body serving the same function as the kidney. Through this innovation, people with kidney failure have found refuge in this procedure. The Jaipur foot, a rubber prosthetic, was developed to help people who lost their legs and foot below the knee. Also, improved medication has entirely minimized the distress of killer illnesses such as Ebola. Technology has also helped in speeding up research while connecting different researchers across the globe, thus allowing the attention to constrict and the workforce increased in getting solutions to specific medical mysteries and towards the development of vaccines. Today, we hope through advanced technological research; we would develop the coronavirus vaccine.

Technological interventions have aided the faster processing of health results in the lab. It is possible to access lab results immediately from the laboratories, thus help in reducing anxieties. Doctors can also easily access the patient's records, providing them with in-depth knowledge of their patients' current and past health trends, in turn, enhancing the patient-doctor relationship. It is even possible to predict future disease outbreaks through data analysis. This procedure is common in predicting yearly flu outbursts. The location can be determined from online searches, and it is possible to create databases that show both the increase in possible cases and the spread of the disease.

Global Health Technology Initiatives

Smart wearable sensors. Smart wearable systems lead to patient empowerment. These technologies, such as Fitbit, give users greater control over their health and help prevent diseases by providing real-time health status feedback by tracking critical signals that allow their users to change and plan their operations to achieve optimum fitness and health results. Wearable sensors are getting smaller, more integrated with the human body, and less obtrusive. For example, Google's digital contact lens helps diabetic patients track their glucose levels and control them.

Artificial Intelligence. Through (AI), doctors will be able to have assistance in medical decision making. The IBM Watson machine has also shown tremendous potential to help analyze symptoms and administer the right care ("IBM WATSON," n.d.). In 15 seconds, Watson can read 40 million documents and recommend therapies based on the study. However, since it does not answer medical questions, it will not substitute human physicians but instead analyzes medical knowledge and provides the most likely applicable findings that can assist them in the shortest period to make the most educated choices.

Role of Nursing in Supporting Global Health

Despite the emergence of many technological interventions in healthcare, nurses are still essential and play a significant role in global healthcare. Nurses identify patient needs and provide them with efficient healthcare systems. In the advent of disease outbreaks, nurses play a role in helping the government and other agencies in responding to the situation by implementation and evaluation of the epidemic. They play a leadership role in managing and controlling the epidemic. They are also part of the policymaking team in influencing population health outcomes.

Conclusion

The rise in technology has positively impacted universal healthcare. Through different innovations, the medical industry has developed rapidly. Therefore, focus should be developed towards technological innovations without forgetting the role of nursing in supporting global health.

References

IBM Watson. (n.d.). IBM - United States.
https://www.ibm.com/watson/MALARIA: PREVENTION AND TREATMENT On 20th April 2018 by Sorsha Roberts. (n.d.).

RONQUILLO, J. G., & ZUCKERMAN, D. M. (2017). Software-related recalls of health information technology and other medical devices: Implications for FDA regulation of digital health. The Milbank Quarterly, 95(3), 535-553.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0009.12278.