E-Health and its impact on Stakeholders

For the final post on this blog I would like to finish on a positive note. The World Health Organisation have listed all the benefits of E-Health and so this week I will focus on what these advances mean for the stakeholders. This information was gathered from the Irish Department of Health’s publication: eHealth strategy for Ireland.

The first and largest stakeholder group, the patients and citizens are impacted most significantly by the e-health enabling personalised, preventative and proactive care throughout the health system and across their lifespan. The patient, therefore, is more empowered to manage their own health course. There are however many other ways in which citizens will benefit from eHealth. As patients/citizens interact with the healthcare system, healthcare providers will know who they are and have access to relevant details of their health information. Patients will have the ability to access their own health records which also is another step in empowering them. As more accredited sources of health information becomes accessible to citizens via the web 2.0, people will be better able to manage and learn how to improve their health. As data on patients becomes digitalised and protected by highly secure databases, people will have more confidence in the maintained confidentiality of their information. Focus will be shifted to prevention due to the education of patients and self-management plans. Another very important advance especially to rural patients is that care can be distributed to those areas as the relevant knowledge can be accessed by anyone nearby. This eradicates the previous distance problem. These bountiful gains for the patient/ citizen pleases me greatly as they are often the last stakeholder to be taken into consideration when implementing changes(Department of Health, 2015)

For care providers, three main benefits are provided. Firstly, like patients, they benefit from the ease of self-education brought about by the information and course now available online. This also ensures that the most up to date and advanced knowledge is available to them. Secondly, communication between patient and care giver is vastly improved due to the ease in which the internet enables communication in a multitude of different forms. Finally, care providers can speedily receive a professional second opinion or consultation no matter how remote the location and due to the high level of communication available to them and the now existing professional networks. (Department of Health, 2015)

For healthcare management, several extremely important advances are made. E- Health monitors quality and safety which improves care processes and reduces the possibility of medical errors. It allows transparency of delivery system and enables budget, pricing, billing, claims and resource management systems. Mobility of citizens and their medical records are greatly assisted meaning that patient information is available immediately when and where it is needed. New opportunities in basic and applied research are feasible. More reliable, responsive and timely reporting on public health will occur which is imperative as health becomes increasingly central to economy, security, foreign affairs and international relationships. Technology advances make it more possible to identify disease and risk factor trends, to analyses demographic, social and health data. (Department of Health, 2015)

To the business and economy, E- Health also brings opportunity. Investment in eHealth brings new markets and encourages business start-up and entrepreneurial activities which are imminently exportable once developed. Development and innovation of eHealth services will lead to extensive research and development and product opportunities. (Department of Health, 2015)

This is just the dawn of the the shift in Healthcare towards a more technology shifted system and already the prosperity is evident or at least very soon will be. 10 years down the line we can be sure that advances will have been made that we couldn’t even have dreamt of today.

 

Bibliography

Department of Health, (2015). ehealth strategy for ireland. Dublin: Department of Health.

The impact of Smartphones on our health

This blog has mainly focused on the positive impacts of technology and IT on healthcare. This week however, I would like to look more closely at some of the more negative impacts brought about by the vast increase of technology in our day to day lives.

More specifically I would like to focus my attention on smartphones, beginning with the anxiety, stress and sometimes depression that they are responsible for. From research I have found that I am not alone in my experiences of anxiety from not checking my phone, panic when I can’t find it or when the battery dies. There is in fact a term coined to describe exactly that, namely FIMO or fear of missing out. However, the anxiety does not disappear when the phone is in hand and notifications are checked. The FIMO is replaced by needing to reply to messages and notification immediately or else feelings of inadequacy from not being able to replicate the “far superior more exciting” lives of others that are depicted by their social media accounts.

Dr. David Shanley, an anxiety specialist (Dr. David Shanley, 2015), states that

“People feel compelled to check their phone constantly, which can then lead to disappointment when there are no new messages, and increased stress about why no one is messaging them, or when the next message might come”

It is ironic that social media sites which were original joined for fun and relaxation have now become a huge source of stress for us. The stress levels are relatively small. They could be over something insignificant like how many “likes” or comments a post or photo gets, or why someone hasn’t replied to a message. However, while the stress dosage isn’t high, it is constant, from the minute we wake to the moment we go to sleep, we are constantly connected, and constantly have low levels of stress.

While on the topic of sleep. It is common knowledge that the blue light emitted by phones, prevents the brain from producing the hormone Melatonin, crucial to inducing sleep. The negative impacts of sleep deprivation are boundless but certainly contribute to increase anxiety and stress levels. The light emitted by phones however, may also have some other negative impacts on our health. There exists some evidence that the light may also be damaging our retina over time and possibly may lead to Cataracts. However, this research is in its early stage as this is a relatively recent phenomenon, the data set is quite limited. (body, 2015)

Radiation emissions from smartphones are also questionable. While there is no concrete data to prove that this is going to be a major factor in the future, it’s hard not to worry as already stated, the impacts are still unknown as phones are too recent an addition to our lives to have legitimate answers to our concerns.

Phone usage in bathrooms is another area of concern. Marketing firm 11Mark surveyed 1,000 Americans and found that three-fourths of the participants admitted to using their smartphones in the bathroom. One-quarter of the respondents said they never go into the bathroom without their phone (Jr, 2015). This habit is a very obvious health hazard, as bathrooms are generally germ saturated environments. You’ll wash your hands but not your phone!

Unfortunately, this is just a tiny area and example of some of the negative impacts of technology on our health. However, that being said, I cannot stress how much the positives outweigh the negatives in this particular field.

Bibliography

Jr, J. (2015). Smartphone Owners Prone to Using their Devices in the Bathroom. [online] PCWorld. Available at: http://www.pcworld.com/article/249022/smartphone_owners_prone_to_using_their_devices_in_the_bathroom.html [Accessed 13 Dec. 2015].

Dr. David Shanley, (2015). Technology and Anxiety and Stress – Dr. David Shanley. [online] Available at: http://drdavidshanley.com/technology-anxiety-stress/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2015].

body, H. (2015). How smartphone light affects your brain and body. [online] Tech Insider. Available at: http://www.techinsider.io/how-smartphone-light-affects-your-brain-and-body-2015-9 [Accessed 13 Dec. 2015].