Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLE 12.1 (Continued)
Interview Results: Summary of Role and Main Concerns Envisioned by Different Actors with Regard to Social Embedding Process of
Visionary BAN Applications in Health Care
Actor
Description
Main
concerns
Concern about the mismatch between demand and supply in the medical devices sector. The development of medical
technologies is mainly driven by technology push strategies from the view of government and more interaction with
the users is required to enable the societal embedding of medical devices like BAN. There is need to articulate the
concerns of society and if necessary to implement new regulations to deal with the concerns about ethical aspects
that may arise to hamper societal embedding of BAN technologies (cf. privacy concerns).
Concern about the level of organizational changes required to make new technologies like BAN societal embedded.
This requires lots of effort to create alignments and coordinate incentives of different actors and may take a long time
to realize.
Concerns about equal access to BAN applications in the society.
Health-care
professionals
Envisioned
role
Envision using BAN applications if these are evidence based and bring added value to their daily activities and their
patients. Also envision the role of gateway through which devices have to be chosen and further information
provision to patients.
Main
concerns
From the health-care professionals' perspective, health-care processes cannot be taken over by technologies measuring
factual data alone; there are different factors that have to be taken into account when making medical judgments.
They are concerned that this might undermine the whole care aspect of the medical profession, causing negative
impact on the patient. On the basis of this, they call for early involvement in assessment of usefulness of different
visionary applications.
Concerns about uncertainty regarding the way of handling of false alarms. This could be generated by BAN-
monitoring devices, which in turn might put extra workload on the health-care system.
Concerns about private parties becoming involved in delivering health-care services with BAN applications. Private
parties may be driven by commercial stakes, and this might affect the quality of health care.
Concerns about lack of proper reimbursement policies, which may have serious effects on the societal embedding of
BAN technologies. For example, there are concerns about possible changes to current business models (as many of the
envisioned BAN applications might reduce the number of visits to medical institutions and at the same time requires
health-care professionals to bear certain responsibilities.). In general, there are concerns at the side of medical
professionals about possible hidden agendas of health-care insurance companies to introduce new business models on
the basis of the data that can be generated by BAN technologies.
