Technology In Healthcare
Over the past few decades, technological growth has unveiled glaring gaps in the global health sector. High-tech advancements have not only fought the challenges facing global health but also improved the quality of healthcare in all countries. This paper will provide a clear-cut appraisal of the impact of technology on global health. It will also deliberate the ways that health technology initiatives could help cub the challenges facing the medical sector.
Numerous innovations have come up in the medical field. With the invention of mobile applications, technology has made it easy to communicate useful health information to the whole world. During the outbreak of coronavirus, for instance, global health initiatives created the awareness of the disease as soon as it was discovered (Eldin, 2020). It was through mobile phones that most people could access such vital information. Technology is also facilitating the process of contact tracing which is a vital move in fighting the pandemic. If information about the virus was not communicated effectively, the cases of infection would have soared much higher in numbers than they already have.
Technology plays an indispensable role in the prevention and treatment of diseases. Various technological innovations have been realised over the years to challenge the most weighty health issues faced by the world. These wide-ranging innovations intend to cover health fields such as maternal health, contagious infections, reproductive health, and noncontagious infections. For maternal health, there is the discovery of the uterine balloon that should effectually control too much bleeding after birth. Remember, excessive post-delivery bleeding is the most common cause of maternal death (Sesia, 2017). Thus, the invention has reduced the numbers of probable maternal fatalities.
Additionally, there are new advancements in reproductive health. Contraceptives can now be injected, unlike before when they could only be taken as drugs. One injection can be enough a pregnancy prevention measure for several years (Preshaw, 2012). Also, there are reversible contraceptives induced in the form of devices, which is a major improvement in the reproductive health sector. For contagious infections, innovations such as injectable drugs that serve a long purpose to prevent HIV infection have been unveiled. These long-acting HIV prevention drugs can be taken directly, injected, or implanted in the patient’s body for a specific duration of time (Daniel, 2018). Therefore, people that are highly prone to HIV infection can now prevent it beforehand. All these innovations prove the essentiality of technology in the global health sector.
However, unindustrialized countries have little or no access to health technology. How then can it be helpful to such countries? The Global Initiative on Health Technologies (GHIT) is one of the major initiatives created in response to the problem of health care accessibility in developing countries (Daniel, 2018). The initiative targets such countries majorly, hoping to make reachable to them the aids of health technologies. Working closely with the WHO, it also provides the necessary guidelines for the creation of international programmes for health technology. Such initiatives have widened the usage of technology in the global health sector. Nurses to have a major role in this. They work in organizations that provide healthcare in less developed countries. Thus, they can fight against all forms of disparities in healthcare provision relating to poverty or illiteracy.
In conclusion, technology plays a requisite role in the global health sector. It has unleashed various innovations around the prevention and treatment of diseases. It has also made vital health-related information accessible to all parts of the world through mobile phones. Although some countries may not afford advanced healthcare, global initiatives have been formed to ensure that this challenge is resolved.