NURS 3110 Week 2 Discussion – Emerging Technologies in Health Care
The Empowered Consumer, Depleting Resources, mHealth Healthcare is an industry with consistent growth. This week’s discussion will focus on emerging healthcare trends and implications on the perspectives of doctors, nurses, and patients and their impact on the quality of care.
There are many emerging trends within health care, but for this discussion, I will focus on the empowered consumer, depleting resources, and mHealth (mobile health). Healthcare spending in the United States continues to grow as the aging population gets older. Healthcare spending costs about $11,000 a year per documented U.S. citizen (National Health Expenditures 2017 Highlights, 2017).
As healthcare becomes more accessible and consumers are driven by information, it is important for healthcare organizations to take note. In today’s day and age, with open markets, consumers can seek healthcare just about anywhere. For example, right across the street from my organization, there are two number-one hospitals within their specialties. Patients within this healthcare market can shop for cheaper treatment depending on insurance coverage or lack thereof (PwC, 2019).
NURS 3110 Week 2 Discussion – Emerging Technologies in Health Care
The second healthcare trend is the depletion of resources. Resources within health care are important because otherwise, not having them would make delivering care difficult. The biggest resource shortage is healthcare providers (i.e. nurses, doctors, etc.). According to PwC Global, by 2035, there is a projected 12.9 million shortage of healthcare professionals (PwC, 2019).
The last healthcare trend is mHealth or mobile health. Mobile health has grown over the last several years because it is inexpensive and provides a wider range of access. For example, my organization offers an urgent care telehealth service for $25, where you can see an emergency medicine M.D. and get a prescription. Mobile health allows access even to the gaining population via telehealth. Patients who are in remote areas can be examined or seen by a medical professional with something as simple as having an internet connection and the proper tools (PwC, 2019).
From the perspective of a medical professional mHealth is a great innovation within the medical community. Within health care management, there is a set of four systems. Within the four systems is the information system. The information system is complex, but short is the accumulation of data (Baker et al., 2018).
Telehealth or mHealth has allowed access to healthcare beyond the typical hospital or clinic. From a patient perspective, it has given patients a piece of mind. For example, patients who undergo constant monitoring for their left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are able to have a sense of normalcy without having to consistently check into the clinic. A registered nurse or medical professional assisted by a scale and vital sign monitoring device is able to access the patient’s data from anywhere in the world because of telehealth Ackerman, Filart, Burgess, Lee, & Poropatich, 2010).
NURS 3110 Week 2 Discussion – Emerging Technologies in Health Care
Mobile health or telehealth will benefit many people who lack access to health care. For example, if a patient cannot leave their home for whatever reason, all they need is an internet connection and a device with a camera to see a medical doctor.
All in all, healthcare trends consistently change on a day-to-day basis. As nurse leaders, it is essential for us to stay on top of healthcare issues and resources that can equip our patients with the best outcomes. Access to health care is an ever-growing issue within the United States. The current trend and rapid growth of mHealth is a great tools allowing remote patients to easily obtain access to clinical services.
References
Ackerman, M. J., Filart, R., Burgess, L. P., Lee, I., & Poropatich, R. K. (2010). Developing next-generation telehealth tools and technologies: patients, systems, and data perspectives. Telemedicine Journal and e-health: the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association, 16(1), 93-5.
Baker, J. J., Baker, R. W., & Dworkin, N. R. (2018). Health care finance: Basic tools for nonfinancial managers (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
National Health Expenditures 2017 Highlights. (2017). [ebook] Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, pp.1-3. Available at: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics- Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and- Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/Downloads/highlights.pdf [Accessed 26 Feb. 2019].
PwC. (2019). Depleting resources adds pressure to healthcare. [online] Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/healthcare/emerging-trends-pwc- healthcare/depleting-resources.html [Accessed 3 Mar. 2019].
PwC. (2019). mHealth. [online] Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/healthcare/emerging-trends-pwc- healthcare/mhealth.html [Accessed 4 Mar. 2019].
PwC. (2019). The empowered consumer. [online] Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/healthcare/emerging-trends-pwc- healthcare/new-entrants-healthcare-provision.html [Accessed 4 Mar. 2019].
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Question 
Think about an emerging technology that may impact nursing practice, and consider how this emerging technology may impact quality or safety in practice.