By Day 3 post a cohesive response that addresses the following:
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Describe your selected technology, including when it was first introduced into the health care industry.
Assess the applications of the technology, noting the benefits and potential challenges of the innovation.
Appraise the potential of the innovation to improve health care practice and related outcomes.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings
Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.
Decision support and innovative informatics tools
The development and advancement of technological innovations in healthcare have significantly impacted patient outcomes, experience, and staff satisfaction. One innovation that is commonly used today is robotics. Robotics has been slowly integrated more into clinical medicine in recent times but can be dated back to the ’80s. In 1985, the first surgical application of industrial robotic technology was described when an industrial robotic arm was modified to perform a stereotactic brain biopsy with 0.05mm accuracy (Hockstein et al., 2007). Since then, it has continuously been used in several ways, especially in surgical procedures, streamlining supply delivery and disinfection, freeing up time for providers to engage with patients, and increasing overall operational efficiencies (Intel, 2021). During the COVID-19 pandemic, robots were increasingly used in hospitals to decrease exposure, support labor, and improve patient care time. Also, healthcare robotics has proven to support high-quality patient care through minimally invasive procedures and frequent monitoring of patients with chronic and acute diseases (Intel, 2021). The use of robotics in healthcare brings about dexterity, decreases clinician fatigue, and effective clinical education and training. All these benefits have been shown to improve health care practice.
Despite these benefits, there could pose a threat to job security, as their presence and ability to often multi-task can cause a reduction in the need for staffing, hence possible layoffs. Research has shown that robots in healthcare are perceived to replace human capabilities instead of augmenting them, thereby changing how healthcare is organized and distributed (Cresswell, Cunningham-Burley & Sheikh, 2018). Also, their use often requires adequate training of staff and redesigning of existing workspaces which could pose a financial burden on the organization. Therefore, it is imperative that as health care organizations and policymakers desire to incorporate an automated and technological environment increasingly, they are versed with the benefits they bring and their surrounding challenges.
Cresswell, K., Cunningham-Burley, S., & Sheikh, A. (2018). Health care robotics: Qualitative exploration of key challenges and future directions. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(7), 104-110. Doi:10.2196/10410
Hockstein, N.G., Gourin, C.G., Faust, R.A., & Terris, D.J. (2007). A history of robots: from science fiction to surgical robotics. Journal of Robotic Surgery, 1(2), 113-118. Doi:10.1007/s11701-007-0021-2
Intel. (2021). Robotics in healthcare to improve patient outcomes. Retrieved from https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/healthcare-it/robotics-in-healthcare.html