Assessment 4: Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue

Healthcare technology has transformed the healthcare environment, significantly impacting patient care and potentially improving the efficiency of health systems further. At the same time, such technological advancements pose a significant issue within healthcare settings. This paper examines the issues in healthcare linked to technological advances and elements of the issue and analyzes the issues. It also identifies various potential solutions, selects the key solution, and proposes its implementation process, including a review of the ethical implications of implementing the solution: Assessment 4: Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue.

Key elements of Technological Advancements in Healthcare

Technological advances are transforming healthcare from how patient care is delivered to how diseases are diagnosed and treated. These tech advancements have improved data management and made it possible to design and create smart healthcare systems (Khang et al., 2022; Minopoulos et al., 2022), which has helped overcome various barriers and limitations in medical research, patient management, and approaches towards disease prevention.

For instance, technologies such as telehealth and telemedicine have improved remote patient monitoring and enabled patients to have any time connection and access to their physicians and care teams (Casariego-Vales et al., 2021). Others, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and genetic engineering, are transforming medical research with prospective improvements in disease detection, diagnosis, and therapeutics and supporting medical personalization from childhood to old age (Dzobo et al., 2020).

However, such technological advancements potentially negatively impact patient care and safety cultures, workforce relationships and collaboration, and data security and privacy. The main causes of the issues with advancement technologies are poor digital etiquette and the handling of sensitive health data (Mamina & Pochebut, 2021), accessibility issues related to socioeconomic, digital literacy, and geographical location, bias in AI output, and the high costs of acquiring such technologies.

Analysis of Issues with Technological Advancements in Healthcare

Current evidence shows that advanced technologies such as AI and other mobile and digital technologies have significant benefits and threats within healthcare settings (Naik et al., 2022). Notably, such technologies have been associated with improved efficiency and accessibility of care, as well as improved collaboration in patient care and better patient outcomes. However, the widespread adoption of these technologies in healthcare is faced with significant regulatory, legal, and ethical challenges (Mennella et al., 2024; Zarif, 2022).

These challenges affect patients, care providers, healthcare organizations, and policymakers. For instance, the adoption of advanced digital technologies in healthcare settings is linked to bias, such as in the case of AI, meaning that health systems cannot meet or provide care as per the principles of equality, equal opportunities, and the right to health (Zarif, 2022).

While AI-based health technologies have the potential to improve patient care systems, including clinical workflows, improve patient safety disease diagnosis, and allow for precision care, some of these technologies have advanced at a rate that misses regulatory development, leading to major ethical and legal concerns (Mennella et al., 2024). This lack of regulatory approvals or a regulatory framework for the application of AI and other advanced technologies in healthcare poses a risk to the use of biased health information, furthering health disparities while also negatively impacting patient safety due to a lack of direct human responsibility in the use of such technologies (Naik et al., 2022).

These issues related to technological advancements in healthcare settings are important to healthcare professionals, especially nurses, as the future of patient care is becoming more digitized with the use of AI, telemedicine, gene editing, and mHealth. Telecare, digital apps, and wearables are becoming commonplace.

Comparing and Considering Solutions

The first proposed solution is the establishment of evolving regulations to guide the evolving digital healthcare technologies. Advanced technologies such as AI-based tools in healthcare are fast evolving and reaching levels that existing regulations have not yet covered. This calls for the immediate development of a globally aligned legislative instrument that governs the development and application of digital technologies, such as robots and AI, in healthcare and can anticipate and adapt to technological and scientific breakthroughs in healthcare in the medium and long term (Naik et al., 2022).

Another solution is integrating human intelligence with digital technologies such as AI as they advance. This will ensure that the human role is not eliminated in the design of healthcare systems, care plans, and overall patient-care interactions. The use of human intelligence and input will ensure that AI develops in a more ethical manner, and the design and implementation of AI-based systems will be more human-centric than just technology-centered developments.

Another option to solve ethical and legal issues, such as bias in the use of AI and other advanced technologies in healthcare and patient care, is the implementation of equity-focused training data. As AI becomes a critical part of modern digital systems especially in health, it is important to focus on ensuring the training of such AI models relies more training data that is free from any existing social and economic biases and it meet ethical standards in health care.

Ignoring the issues arising due to advancements in healthcare technologies has the potential to further widen disparities in healthcare access, utilization, and outcomes across different socioeconomic groups. It also acts as a barrier and a limitation to realizing the full potential of the implementation of such technologies in healthcare settings.

Selected and Potential Solution

The selected and proposed solution includes developing an adaptable regulatory environment that focuses on the ethical and legal development of healthcare technologies and evolves with the changing nature of AI and other advanced digital technologies in healthcare. Such a legislative instrument will ensure that the advancement and implementation of such technologies in healthcare are well governed while preventing and restricting their advancement. Therefore, the regulatory environment must be designed to adapt to the advancements in healthcare technologies rather than the technologies adapting to the restrictive regulatory environment.

Ethical Implications Implementing the Solution

The implementation of the regulations for guiding advancements in healthcare technologies must be guided by the ethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, and autonomy and justice. As per the principle of beneficence and no maleficence, the regulatory environment must ensure that technological advancements focus on promoting the provision of care services or the design of healthcare systems that are beneficial to all without any bias or risks to patient harm. The regulations must also ensure that the advancement and use of such digital technologies in healthcare do not limit patient autonomy, promote equitable access to healthcare services, and prevent populations and patients from being exposed to unjust technological and advanced medical tests.

Essentials of Implementing Proposed Solution

The implementation of regulatory solutions to the issues associated with technological advancements in healthcare requires the development of policies that consider the global regulatory perspectives towards healthcare technologies. In this case, the guiding policies need to be globalized (Naik et al., 2022). There is also a need to train technology developers and users on the ethical and legal use of such technologies. The development of such regulations also needs to gain community approvals, hence the engagement of the global communities in the design and implementation of the legislative instrument to guide technological advancements in healthcare.

Conclusion

Resolving the issues associated with technological advancements in healthcare requires a balanced approach that focuses on the existing tension between the benefits and risks of these technologies. The possible solutions to the issues and challenges associated with the advancements in healthcare technologies must address the ethical, legal, and patient safety issues that arise due to the application of such technologies in healthcare. Therefore, a legislative instrument drawn from diverse and global perspectives is needed to ensure that all technological advancements in healthcare benefit the health of global populations, improve patient safety and reduce the risk of harm, promote patient autonomy and privacy, and ensure the development of equitable healthcare systems.

References

Casariego-Vales, E., Blanco-López, R., Rosón-Calvo, B., Suárez-Gil, R., Santos-Guerra, F., Dobao-Feijoo, M. J., Ares-Rico, R., & Bal-Alvaredo, M. (2021). Efficacy of Telemedicine and Telemonitoring in At-Home Monitoring of Patients with COVID-19. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 10(13), 2893. https://doi.org/10.3390/JCM10132893

Dzobo, K., Adotey, S., Thomford, N. E., & Dzobo, W. (2020). Integrating Artificial and Human Intelligence: A Partnership for Responsible Innovation in Biomedical Engineering and Medicine. OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, 24(5), 247–263. https://doi.org/10.1089/OMI.2019.0038

Khang, A., Ragimova, N. A., Hajimahmud, V. A., & Alyar, A. V. (2022). Advanced Technologies and Data Management in the Smart Healthcare System. AI-Centric Smart City Ecosystems, 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003252542-16/advanced-technologies-data-management-smart-healthcare-system-alex-khang-nazila-ali-ragimova-vugar-abdullayev-hajimahmud-abuzarova-vusala-alyar

Mamina, R. I., & Pochebut, S. N. (2021). Digital Etiquette and Its Specification (Philosophical and Methodological Aspect). Discourse, 7(2), 16–27. https://doi.org/10.32603/2412-8562-2021-7-2-16-27

Mennella, C., Maniscalco, U., De Pietro, G., & Esposito, M. (2024). Ethical and regulatory challenges of AI technologies in healthcare: A narrative review. Heliyon, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.1016/J.HELIYON.2024.E26297

Minopoulos, G. M., Memos, V. A., Stergiou, C. L., Stergiou, K. D., Plageras, A. P., Koidou, M. P., & Psannis, K. E. (2022). Exploitation of Emerging Technologies and Advanced Networks for a Smart Healthcare System. Applied Sciences 2022, Vol. 12, Page 5859, 12(12), 5859. https://doi.org/10.3390/APP12125859

Naik, N., Hameed, B. M. Z., Shetty, D. K., Swain, D., Shah, M., Paul, R., Aggarwal, K., Brahim, S., Patil, V., Smriti, K., Shetty, S., Rai, B. P., Chlosta, P., & Somani, B. K. (2022). Legal and Ethical Consideration in Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Who Takes Responsibility? Frontiers in Surgery, 9, 862322. https://doi.org/10.3389/FSURG.2022.862322/BIBTEX

Zarif, A. (2022). The ethical challenges facing the widespread adoption of digital healthcare technology. Health and Technology, 12(1), 175–179. https://doi.org/10.1007/S12553-021-00596-W

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Write a 4-6 page analysis of a current problem or issue in health care, including a proposed solution and possible ethical implications.

Introduction
In your health care career, you will be confronted with many problems that demand a solution. By using research skills, you can learn what others are doing and saying about similar problems. Then, you can analyze the problem and the people and systems it affects. You can also examine potential solutions and their ramifications. This assessment allows you to practice this approach with a real-world problem.

Instructions
Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. At a minimum, be sure to address each point. In addition, you are encouraged to review the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.

• Describe the health care problem or issue you selected for use in Assessment 2 (59039 ) and provide details about it.
• As you describe the topic you explored in Assessment 2, use the first four steps of the Socratic Problem-Solving Approach to aid your critical thinking. This approach was introduced in Assessment 2.
• Identify possible causes for the problem or issue.
• Use scholarly information to describe and explain the health care problem or issue and identify possible causes for it.
• Identify at least three scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles about the topic.
• You may find the How Do I Find Peer-Reviewed Articles? library guide helpful in locating appropriate references.
• You may use articles you found while working on Assessment 2 or you may search the Capella library for other articles.
• You may find the applicable Undergraduate Library Research Guide helpful in your search.
• Review the Think Critically About Source Quality to help you complete the following:
• Assess the credibility of the information sources.
• Assess the relevance of the information sources.
• Analyze the health care problem or issue.
• Describe the setting or context for the problem or issue.
• Describe why the problem or issue is important to you.
• Identify groups of people affected by the problem or issue.
• Provide examples that support your analysis of the problem or issue.
• Discuss potential solutions for the health care problem or issue.
• Describe what would be required to implement a solution.
• Describe potential consequences of ignoring the problem or issue.
• Provide the pros and cons for one of the solutions you are proposing.
• Explain the ethical principles (Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Autonomy, and Justice) if potential solution was implemented.
• Describe what would be necessary to implement the proposed solution.
• Explain the ethical principles that need to be considered (Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Autonomy, and Justice) if the potential solution was implemented.
• Provide examples from the literature to support the points you are making.

Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:

• Assessment 4 Example [PDF]
  

  Assessment 4: Analyzing a Current Health Care Problem or Issue

Additional Requirements
Your assessment should also meet the following requirements:

• Length: 4–6 typed, double-spaced pages, not including the title page and reference page.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
• APA tutorial: Use the APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX] for guidance.
• Written communication: Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
• Using outside sources: Integrate information from outside sources into academic writing by appropriately quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing, following APA style.
• References: Integrate information from outside sources to include at least three scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles and three in-text citations within the paper.
• APA format: Follow current APA guidelines for in-text citations of outside sources in the body of your paper and also on the reference page.

Organize your paper using the following structure and headings:

• Title page. A separate page.
• Introduction. A brief one-paragraph statement about the purpose of the paper.
• Elements of the problem/issue. Identify the elements of the problem or issue or question.
• Analysis. Analyze, define, and frame the problem or issue.
• Considering options. Consider solutions, responses, or answers.
• Solution. Choose a solution, response, or answer.
• Ethical implications. Ethical implications of implementing the solution.
• Implementation. Implementation of the potential solution.
• Conclusion. One paragraph.

Competencies Measured:
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Apply information literacy and library research skills to obtain scholarly information in the field of health care.
  • Use scholarly information to describe and explain a health care problem or issue and identify possible causes for it.
• Competency 2: Apply scholarly information through critical thinking to solve problems in the field of health care.
  • Analyze a health care problem or issue by describing the context, explaining why it is important and identifying populations affected by it.
  • Discuss potential solutions for a health care problem or issue and describe what would be required to implement a solution.
• Competency 3: Apply ethical principles and academic standards to the study of health care.
  • Explain the ethical principles (Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Autonomy, and Justice) if potential solution was implemented
• Competency 4: Write for a specific audience, in appropriate tone and style, in accordance with Capella’s writing standards.
  • Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
  • Write following APA style for in-text citations, quotes, and references.