Reflections on Medical Technology as a Special Type of Capital

1987 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-280
Author(s):  
Mark G. Field
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Medical Technology ◽  
Classical Equation ◽  
Hospital Services ◽  
Time Dimension ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Health Field

AbstractThe classical equation for the production of goods and services, that is, the combination of labor, capital, and knowledge, constrained by the time dimension, may also be used to examine the production of medical and hospital services. However, this is qualified by the special nature of the “capital” used in health care, particularly medical technology. Because of the particular nature of health services, the adoption and the use of technology follows rules that are different from those in the industrial sphere. These differences are examined in some detail as are the implications for the health field in general, and for the hospitals where most of the new (and often costly) technology is located.

scholarly journals Sterwe, dood en rou as ’n gesondheidsprobleem

Curationis ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederika M.J. De Villiers
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Family Structure ◽  
Health Personnel ◽  
Medical Technology ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
The Family ◽  
Care Problems ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Dying Patient

It is clear that the progress in medical technology, the increasing awareness of psycho - social aspects in the health services, the humanistic emphasis on patient care, changes in the family structure, the hospitalisation of the dying patient and the increasing relationship of the health personnel in the death situation, all resulted in an increasing idenitification with dying, death and mourning as health care problems. These tendencies have reached a level which created a need for the development of effective approaches in respect of the case of man in the throes of death. The acceptance of the responsibility not only for the care but also for the accompaniment of dying persons and their loved ones, has become a necessity, because dying, death and mourning actually are health problems.

scholarly journals Behavior science in the evolving world of digital health: considerations on anticipated opportunities and challenges

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madalina Sucala ◽  
Heather Cole-Lewis ◽  
Danielle Arigo ◽  
Megan Oser ◽  
Stephanie Goldstein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Behavioral Science ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Behavior Science ◽  
Evolving Models ◽  
Health Field ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Digital health promises to increase intervention reach and effectiveness for a range of behavioral health outcomes. Behavioral scientists have a unique opportunity to infuse their expertise in all phases of a digital health intervention, from design to implementation. The aim of this study was to assess behavioral scientists’ interests and needs with respect to digital health endeavors, as well as gather expert insight into the role of behavioral science in the evolution of digital health. The study used a two-phased approach: (a) a survey of behavioral scientists’ current needs and interests with respect to digital health endeavors (n = 346); (b) a series of interviews with digital health stakeholders for their expert insight on the evolution of the health field (n = 15). In terms of current needs and interests, the large majority of surveyed behavioral scientists (77%) already participate in digital health projects, and from those who have not done so yet, the majority (65%) reported intending to do so in the future. In terms of the expected evolution of the digital health field, interviewed stakeholders anticipated a number of changes, from overall landscape changes through evolving models of reimbursement to more significant oversight and regulations. These findings provide a timely insight into behavioral scientists’ current needs, barriers, and attitudes toward the use of technology in health care and public health. Results might also highlight the areas where behavioral scientists can leverage their expertise to both enhance digital health’s potential to improve health, as well as to prevent the potential unintended consequences that can emerge from scaling the use of technology in health care.

The Isolation of Health Services in Society: Development and Consequences

1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 209-225
Author(s):  
Dorte Gannik ◽  
Laila Launsø
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Health Care System ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Illness Behavior ◽  
Primary Health Care System ◽  
Health Care Crisis ◽  
Health Field ◽  
Care System

That there exists an isolation of health services today is a consequence of important structural changes in society, especially the structure of both the family and occupations and increased professional dominance within the health field. The crisis of the health care system is due to its demand for increased economic resources and political support, a demand which is not met by the broader society, i.e. we are dealing with a failure of legitimacy, resulting among other things from the fact that health professionals have not publicly discussed the aims and methods of their field. Due to the failure of legitimacy we see a diversity of popular movements and activities, which can be described as individuals involved in organized protest. Some of these movements result in a certain strengthening of individual resources, thereby restraining the growing inequality of resources between professionals and patients. The article deals with what could be called the crisis in the health care system. The general economic crisis of society adds to and sharpens this development, but we will here argue the existence of a separate and independent crisis in the health field, which would have developed anyway. The background of the health care crisis is the separation of health services from society in ways that will be described, and the increasing inequality of resources between the agents of the health care system and the people. We will describe an economic-political aspect of the crisis as well as an aspect of legitimacy bound up with it. Finally we point to the reactions of the population in the face of the health care crisis. The authors work with analyses of the primary health care system (authorized as well as unauthorized),1 as relates to people's illness and illness behavior. This is the basis of the article. The research data available in this area are scarce, and we would like to point out that the paper as a whole aims to present a hypothesis rather than established facts. We think this has a value in itself and hope that the readers will accept the limitations of this approach. The article confines itself to the health services of Denmark, though similar tendencies could be described as regards the social services.

Preisbildung bei ambulant und stationär erbrachten Gesundheitsleistungen / Pricing of Ambulatory and Stationary Health Services

2007 ◽  
Vol 227 (5-6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Günter Neubauer ◽  
Florian Pfister
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Price Competition ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Health Care Market ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Health Insurers

SummaryIn all health care systems exists governmental regulation, as the market for health is unanimously regarded as imperfect. The German health care market is a good example for a strongly regulated market in nearly each submarket, partially the determination of prices. Reimbursement of health goods and services is overwhelmingly collectively contracted between the health insurers and healthcare providers. In this article, we begin with the description of central functions of prices in the health care sector and components of reimbursement systems. After the general thoughts follows an overview of the concrete reimbursement reality in Germany’s ambulatory and stationary care. We identify and discuss pro and contra the trend towards single prices for identical health services in all of Germany. Another, in someway opposite, trend is less collective bargaining between health insurers and associations of health providers, which gets increasingly substituted with selective contracting. Another issue we cover is the relationship between price competition and quality competition.

scholarly journals Perspectives of Family Members on Using Technology in Youth Mental Health Care: A Qualitative Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. e21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shalini Lal ◽  
Winnie Daniel ◽  
Lysanne Rivard
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Early Intervention ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Youth Mental Health ◽  
Use Of Technology

Background Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly recognized as having an important role in the delivery of mental health services for youth. Recent studies have evaluated young people’s access and use of technology, as well as their perspectives on using technology to receive mental health information, services, and support; however, limited attention has been given to the perspectives of family members in this regard. Objective The aim of this study was to explore the perspectives of family members on the use of ICTs to deliver mental health services to youth within the context of specialized early intervention for a first-episode psychosis (FEP). Methods Six focus groups were conducted with family members recruited from an early intervention program for psychosis. Twelve family members participated in the study (target sample was 12-18, and recruitment efforts took place over the duration of 1 year). A 12-item semistructured focus group guide was developed to explore past experiences of technology and recommendations for the use of technology in youth mental health service delivery. A qualitative thematic analysis guided the identification and organization of common themes and patterns identified across the dataset. Results Findings were organized by the following themes: access and use of technology, potential negative impacts of technology on youth in recovery, potential benefits of using technology to deliver mental health services to youth, and recommendations to use technology for (1) providing quality information in a manner that is accessible to individuals of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, (2) facilitating communication with health care professionals and services, and (3) increasing access to peer support. Conclusions To our knowledge, this is among the first (or the first) to explore the perspectives of family members of youth being treated for FEP on the use of technology for mental health care. Our results highlight the importance of considering diverse experiences and attitudes toward the role of technology in youth mental health, digital literacy skills, phases of recovery, and sociodemographic factors when engaging family members in technology-enabled youth mental health care research and practice. Innovative methods to recruit and elicit the perspectives of family members on this topic are warranted. It is also important to consider educational strategies to inform and empower family members on the role, benefits, and use of ICTs in relation to mental health care for FEP.

Health Service Regionalization in New Brunswick, Canada: A Bold Move

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Reamy
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Health Services ◽  
New Brunswick ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Community Health Services ◽  
Hospital Services ◽  
Physician Services ◽  
Care Services

New Brunswick moved swiftly in 1992 to regionalize hospital and physician services along with the reform and expansion of other health care services. The dissolution of 51 hospital and community health services center boards and the establishment of eight region hospital corporations to oversee services in the seven health regions set the tone for regionalization in the province. The plan provides the flexibility to meet specific regional needs. The initial regionalization of hospital services was followed by the determination of the appropriate number, mix, and distribution of physician resources for each region, also to be managed by the region hospital corporation. The provincial government's central role not only guides the regions, but also uses incentives and disincentives to ensure that regional goals are met. While regionalization is not new and some components of the New Brunswick plan have been used elsewhere, the effort offers an integrated model for the regionalization of hospital and physician services, with the expansion of complementary services.

Women, Health, and Medical Technology

1994 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inger Stauning
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Medical Technology ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽  
Women Health ◽  
Medical Technologies ◽  
In Pregnancy

AbstractNew medical technologies are often developed and diffused in health care without societal assessments or setting of priorities. This article discusses the driving forces behind the development of new technologies and asks how women as users and providers of health services can gain influence on the process. Technologies used in pregnancy and childbirth are discussed to reveal different interests in their development and use and to discuss the role of industry in the development of new medical technologies in general.

Contracts and the Quasi-market in Community Health Services

1995 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Flynn ◽  
Susan Pickard ◽  
Gareth Williams
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Services ◽  
Acute Hospital ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Hospital Services ◽  
Care Community ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
Contracting Process

ABSTRACTIn the NHS quasi-market, contracts are the crucial mechanism through which purchasers influence providers of health care. Most attention has been given to the commissioning and contracting process in acute hospital services. However, there is another important but neglected sector of health care – community health services (CHS) – in which the specification and implementation of contracts is particularly difficult. In this article, three dimensions of contracting are analysed, illustrated by qualitative evidence from case studies, concerning: the measurement of activity; the estimation of costs and prices; and the monitoring of outcomes and quality. This article argues that community health services are intrinsically problematic within the quasi-market, and suggests that the nature of the services and the system of delivery militate against provider competition. It is argued that CHS have more in common with ‘clans’ and ‘networks’ rather than markets and hierarchies, and that this requires collaborative rather than adversarial relationships between purchasers and providers.

Medical Technology and Developing Countries: The Case of Brazil

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. David Banta
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Medical Technology ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
World Health ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
The Government ◽  
Health Organization

Developing countries, faced with severe resource limitations, are trying to develop modern health care services that deliver sensible medical technologies. Because of their lack of development, these countries must import much technology, while often lacking the expertise to make wise choices. In this article, the case of Brazil is examined. Brazil has shared many of the problems of other developing countries, including inadequate access of the population to health services, maldistribution and excessive use of technology, a relatively weak national industry for production of drugs and medical devices, a weak policy structure for dealing with medical technology, and little tradition of using research or policy analysis as a guide to action. Since the election in 1985 that returned Brazil to democratic rule, the government has taken active steps to address many of these problems. The example of Brazil is important for all of the developing world to examine and follow, where applicable. In addition, North American and European aid programs could play a much more constructive role in helping less developed countries develop their health care services. International organizations such as the World Health Organization must also be active in assisting such countries to improve their decisions concerning medical technology.

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