Digitization in healthcare: a slow pacing process.
Being a healthcare professional, the implications of digitalization are obvious and easily noticeable. In the past years, I have observed a drastic shift to paperless documentation in the department I was in at that time. I thought it was a helpful and necessary change. It provided more accuracy and prevented typical errors in patient care. It made mistakes traceable and correction of practical care was performed almost immediately upon investigation. I noticed it made nurses more careful. However, this change was also noticeably not readily accepted by the whole workforce. I noticed a lot of complaints during employee meetings regarding the change by digitally less skilled workers, constant updates of interfaces, as well as change of programs used. It eventually settled in however, and made documentation more organized and efficient. I personally think the advancement was slow since in other parts of the world that year, 2015, some hospitals , like one located in Singapore already utilized, specimen transport robots, while our staff was still battling the right to choose to document patient care on paper instead.
I find, there is a huge delay in some areas, due to slow information on how digitized environments and equipment in healthcare can benefit the workforce and boost patient quality of care. The acceptance of changes and needed ICT basic training have been slow in some areas. However, the world has been zooming on, and the past years, especially during the Corona outbreak, I notice a wider acceptance of digital benefits and changes happening in healthcare.
At this point in time, as a student in Leadership for Nordic Healthcare, I am really interested in the possible digital advances that will catapult healthcare quality to the next level. Being aware that Nordic healthcare is already top brass, we can only just imagine what it would be like advanced. Digital watch or patch monitors and drone specimen carriers will definitely make remote care more efficient and decrease the digital divide created by bad geographical locations. If robotic fluid-like malleable devices are better formed in consistency and unified structure, we can only imagine how easy and efficient operations regarding removal of obstructive elements or internal scanning can become.
Although,it is understandable that the worldwide shift to a more futuristic and digitized society should be carefully considered and diligently assessed for user appropriateness, benefits, and discrepancies when it come to integration in healthcare because when dealing with the human life and human rights, one can never be too careful.
RISKS OF AN OPEN SOCIETY
As we notice a clear paradigm shift in society in every aspect of life, we realize the clear disadvantages to our personal privacy. Seemingly, as we welcome a digital age the term “data privacy” is constantly redefined to fit the frame of an emerging society. It is then only right that we take control of the transformation. That we remain the masters of the digital world and not become the servants. It calls for constant adjustment to make sure Artificial intelligence fits the framework that only serves humanity, and relentlessly upholds human right to moral choice and dignity. Personal data must still be considered an individual’s ownership and prevention of flippant use and publication of such must still remain a priority despite fast-paced digitization.
GDPR(General Data Protection Regulation) pursues upholding cyber safety of data that will eventually remain preserved for more than the owners’ lifetime. As data preservation progresses at such a high speed, the measures for cyber security continue to try to cope. GDPR has set ground rules for just that. It makes every worker aware of their digital responsibility making each individual employee a guard for digital criminal activity. However, digital responsibility is indeed built in time with proper information on why these rules exist.
SELF EVALUATION
As a healthcare professional I aim to always pursue the quality of care and patient rights. It requires me to personally assess the introduction of innovations to prove whether it contributes to the advancement of the pursuit of quality health. And if it does, this shift, no matter how seemingly difficult, will push me to pursue the right of every individual to utilize it as a personal resource. If digitalized healthcare promotes the equity and quality of healthcare provision, it will be a responsible move to utilize it and eliminate aspects that make it unacceptable but not cancel it’s usability out all together. I believe digital innovation in healthcare should be carefully considered but reasonably welcomed. I personally will not be able to deny something that will drastically improve the well being of humanity, even if it seems there are aspects of security to consider. I see it as a road that will be filled with many updates and revisions, however, errors eliminated are advantages won.
ChatGPT:
Open AI, I believe is one of the many fantastic digital innovations. It has a very great potential for much good.However, it also has obvious serious potential for damage. Being a healthcare personnel, I was curious as to how it would answer me regarding why Open AI existence is beneficial to healthcare. It said it is beneficial in that it is capable of big data analysis and prediction,it can be a real-time clinical support and it can enhance communication of healthcare providers and patients etc. Now, I was curious as to whether it recognizes the disadvantages of its existence to health care as well, and here is what it said. It is a disadvantage because of ethical and privacy concerns, bias in AI models, and lack of human connection. What I observe in this short discussion with an intelligent AI is that the answers are straightforward and immediate. They also are intellectually stated and well understood. Also, which in my opinion is a huge leap for AI, is the fluid human-like interaction with the user. However, it is also not difficult to spot flaws in the information. For example, ChatGPT admits that the answers and search outcomes highly depends on the training used for that certain AI, therefore, if the training is somehow flawed or the algorithm is somehow in error, it will give out a biased information that seems fluently correct. Also, as we practically notice, it gave out two opposing answers regarding human communication which was an advantage as well as a disadvantage at the same time. This reasoning is immediately obviously a flaw.Since, if ChatGPT claims it to be a weakness it cannot be its strength at the same time. Proving to us that the machine takes the best of plausible answers that already exist and gives out what it finds,without logical consideration of whether or not it already gave out an opposing answer. It is highly intelligent and will be beneficial to healthcare indeed, however, this small example tells us that in terms of human morality and ethical decisions, it only reaches the morality of the person that programs it and will always be subjected to that because it lacks actual human empathy and the ability for moral quality advancement.
BLOGS I READ AND COMMENTED ON:
Jemimah's site 
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