Images of Health Technology in National and Local Strategies

Summary Objectives: This paper examines the potential of various models relating technology to society and institutional structures to inform health policy. Among the models discussed are various versions of technological determinism, social constructivism, actor network theory and critical theory. Methods: The paper considers recent developments in policy and strategy that aim to shape the way the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) integrates Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into health care and considers what these alternative models highlight or emphasise, and how they might influence the activities of setting local implementation strategies. Results and Conclusions: Contemporary ICTs are often presented as having a particular relevance and power in reforming or transforming the delivery of health care. Understanding how such technologies might be conceived of, implemented and become an integral part of some future health care system is an important and challenging task that requires innovative theoretical treatments.

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Health-Enabling and Ambient Assistive Technologies: Past, Present, Future

Yearbook of Medical Informatics ◽

10.15265/iys-2016-s008 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 25 (S 01) ◽

pp. S76-S91 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

K.-H. Wolf ◽

R. Haux ◽

S. Koch ◽

N.H. Lovell ◽

M. Marschollek ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Information And Communication Technologies ◽

Medical Informatics ◽

Assistive Technologies ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Future Health ◽

Future Health Care ◽

Information And Communication ◽

Important Field ◽

A Minor

Summary Background: During the last decades, health-enabling and ambient assistive technologies became of considerable relevance for new informatics-based forms of diagnosis, prevention, and therapy. Objectives: To describe the state of the art of health-enabling and ambient assistive technologies in 1992 and today, and its evolution over the last 25 years as well as to project where the field is expected to be in the next 25 years. In the context of this review, we define health-enabling and ambient assistive technologies as ambiently used sensor-based information and communication technologies, aiming at contributing to a person’s health and health care as well as to her or his quality of life. Methods: Systematic review of all original articles with research focus in all volumes of the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics. Surveying authors independently on key projects and visions as well as on their lessons learned in the context of health-enabling and ambient assistive technologies and summarizing their answers. Surveying authors independently on their expectations for the future and summarizing their answers. Results: IMIA Yearbook papers containing statements on health-enabling and ambient assistive technologies appear first in 2002. These papers form a minor part of published research articles in medical informatics. However, during recent years the number of articles published has increased significantly. Key projects were identified. There was a clear progress on the use of technologies. However proof of diagnostic relevance and therapeutic efficacy remains still limited. Reforming health care processes and focussing more on patient needs are required. Conclusions: Health-enabling and ambient assistive technologies remain an important field for future health care and for interdisciplinary research. More and more publications assume that a person‘s home and their interaction therein, are becoming important components in health care provision, assessment, and management.

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Theoretical perspectives on technology and society: implications for understanding the relationship between ICTs and family life

Connecting Families? ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447339946.003.0002 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 21-40

Author(s):

Natasha S. Mauthner ◽

Karolina A. Kazimierczak

Keyword(s):

Information And Communication Technologies ◽

Empirical Research ◽

Social Constructivism ◽

Family Life ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Technological Determinism ◽

Technology And Society ◽

Theoretical Perspectives ◽

Information And Communication ◽

The Relationship

This chapter explores four theoretical perspectives on technology and society — technological determinism, social constructivism, actor network theory (ANT), and posthumanism — and situates them within current empirical research on information and communication technologies (ICTs) and family dynamics. Technological determinism theorises the relationship between technological and social change that informs academic, policy and popular accounts about the place of technology in everyday life. Social constructivist approaches to technology include ‘social shaping of technology’, ‘social construction of technology’ and ‘technological systems’ perspectives. The chapter also explains the main assumptions of ANT and posthumanist approaches before proceeding with a discussion of how technological determinism, social constructivism and ANT have implicitly or explicitly shaped empirical research on ICTs and family life. It concludes by considering the implications of posthumanism for research on ICTs and family life.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Primary care referral of patients with low back pain to physical therapy: impact on future health care utilization and costs.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.717969063.793468611 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Steven George ◽

Jason Beneciuk

Keyword(s):

Primary Care ◽

Health Care ◽

Low Back Pain ◽

Back Pain ◽

Physical Therapy ◽

Health Care Utilization ◽

Care Utilization ◽

Low Back ◽

Future Health ◽

Future Health Care

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YOUR FUTURE HEALTH CARE

Psychiatric Annals ◽

10.3928/0048-5713-19740901-11 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 4 (9) ◽

pp. 79-79

Author(s):

Anonymous

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Future Health ◽

Future Health Care

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Measuring reopening readiness: a universal COVID-19 index for US states

Library Hi Tech ◽

10.1108/lht-03-2021-0115 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Eunju Suh ◽

Mahdi Alhaery

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Services ◽

Future Health ◽

Content Type ◽

Counter Measures ◽

Care Services ◽

Future Health Care ◽

Pandemic Severity ◽

Occupancy Rates ◽

Bed Occupancy Rates

PurposeWhile United States is among countries with the world’s highest coronavirus infections, its approaches and policies to reopen the economy vary by state. A lack of objective criteria and monitoring toward satisfying the criteria can lead to another COVID-19 outbreak and business closures. Considering the pressing need to return to normalcy without a rebound of COVID-19 infections and deaths, an index that provides a data-driven and objective insight is urgently needed. Hence, a method was devised to assess the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and determine the degree of progress any state has made in containing the spread of COVID-19.Design/methodology/approachUsing measures such as the weekly averages of daily new deaths, ICU bed occupancy rates, positive cases and test positivity rates, two indexes were developed: COVID-19 reopening readiness and severity.FindingsA clear difference in the pandemic severity trends can be observed between states, which is possibly due to the disparity in the state’s response to coronavirus. A sharp upward trend in index values requires caution prior to moving to the next phase of reopening.Originality/valueThe composite indexes advanced in this study will provide a universal, standardized and unbiased view of each state’s readiness to reopen and allow comparisons between states. This in turn can help governments and health-care agencies take counter measures if needed as to the anticipated demand for future health-care services and minimize adverse consequences of opening.

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