Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
there should be a debate on what kind of information can be used for inter-
nal evaluations and which could be used for external benchmarking. This is
important to consider because strategies that basically use calibrating meth-
ods for comparison might drive health care to orient toward average scores.
12.3.2.3 Health-Care Providers
Health-care professionals have an important position and role to play with
regard to the emergence and societal embedding of the BAN concept and its
applications in health care. The responsibility of health-care professionals in
delivering adequate health care to their patients is quite complex, and there
are many factors that determine such decision-making processes. Therefore,
the knowledge and experience of these professionals play an important role
in the setup and tailoring of services to patient needs. Furthermore, health-
care professionals recognize their supportive role to inform patients about
the use of specific technologies and supporting patients to choose products
that fit their norms and values.
All stakeholders that have been interviewed for this study have collec-
tively agreed that the introduction of BAN technologies will have an impact
on the complexity of roles and responsibilities of health-care professionals.
This is linked to the fact that care processes will not only be related to one
professional but a chain of different professionals. The responsibilities are
not only exclusive to how patient information exchange is handled, but also
responsibilities relating to good information provision and the direct respon-
sibility for the health state of the patient. In fact, Oudshoorn (2007) suggests
that adoption of tele-medical technologies (cf. ambulatory EEG recorder) is
highly dependent on a well-organized and well-staffed tele-medical center.
Oudshoorn's empirical study shows the importance of the invisible work
that is done by the nurses and other professionals in the chain and therefore
suggests that the agency of patients themselves is not a motivational fac-
tor, but should be extended to the level of sociotechnical networks in which
health-care services are embedded. Another issue that seems to be crucial
to the health-care professionals is the requirement of using evidence-based
devices. The work of health-care professionals is highly sensitive and there-
fore it is necessary that any conclusion reached or advice given by them is
justifiable. At the same time, cultural changes have led to an increasing trend
among patients to question the decisions of health professionals and seek
legal action in case of mistakes. This has created the need for health-care
providers to be able to demonstrate that their decisions or advice given to
patients are based on relevant and valid information.
12.3.2.4 Government
A solid information provision and the right to high-quality care is the basic
requirement that the government safeguards with regard to new products
