Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
on high-quality health-care for the patient. A possible negative impact of
such a construct anticipated from the view of one medical professional was
the risk that commercial parties select the patients who do not require lots of
attention and leave the patients that require more intensive attention to the
public sector. Furthermore, it was argued that medical professionals have the
exclusive knowledge and experience that is required to judge the situation
and determine the norms and quality of care that needs to be delivered and
therefore should always function as a gateway.
Another important concern that was collectively raised by the medical pro-
fessionals relates to the risk of “medicalization” of worried healthy people.
It was argued that without relevant indication, the usability of monitoring
devices is pointless and can even cause unnecessary anxiety with regard to
the health state. The issue of increasing concern that patients and citizens
are not always capable of making the right choices with regard to what kind
of care/services they need leaves an open policy question to be addressed
for the future of health-care reforms. Should the government take necessary
actions to protect citizens against taking wrong decisions, or in light of the
increasing shift of responsibility to citizens, just allow them to make inde-
pendent choices?
12.3.3.5 Quality and Safety Aspects
Safety and quality of care are important factors that shape the acceptance of
technologies by different actors. In our investigation, almost all actors inter-
viewed believe that the safety and quality of care are fundamental require-
ments to the acceptance of health-care technologies in general and becomes
particularly important when transition takes place toward an arrangement
that involves monitoring on distance. Problems can arise, for example, because
of lack of protocols and agreements, instructions for users, or recording sys-
tem failures. Such issues should be investigated well before introduction, and
responsibilities should be allocated and accepted by all parties involved. Related
to this, the limited role of technology in training and teamwork skills of the
medical professionals is problematic. The care process in terms of planning and
communication can be enhanced by means of the technologies that are being
developed; however, its success is dependent on the concurrent development
with teamwork processes and organizational factors as part of the operational
structure. Such factors are important because a noteworthy amount of work that
leads to the success of technologies is embedded in the teamwork and invisible
work carried out behind delivering that care (Oudshoorn 2007). Also, it should
be noticed that the design of health-care services that require multidisciplinary
cooperation in the health-care chain should consider the business models of the
different professionals, and funding schemes have to be developed so that all
parties involved do get a fare share of income.
An important feature that plays an integral role in the advancement of
BAN concept and its applications in health care is the capability of the
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