Is technology dehumanizing the practice of medicine?
Does technology dehumanize the practice of medicine?, I have asked myself this question a thousand times, and I know well that everything has its midpoints, and that it is not always the way we expect things to happen, and that technology is what has allowed us to advance to the point where we are now.
But what never ceases to catch my attention is that I particularly feel that there is a global process in which everything is more focused on technology than on the human being itself.
I am going to refer in this post specifically to the field of medicine, which is properly my area of profession and I will explain what I think is happening in patient care and how this could change in the near future, for better or for worse?, I am not so sure.
In current medical care, and I have been able to verify it, care is not necessarily focused entirely on the patient, but rather on the patient's problem. And yes, I understand that if a person goes to the doctor it is because they have a problem, and the job of the health personnel is to help them, but the detail here is that the protocols in general are stipulated giving a high priority to the studies paraclinical (imaging and laboratory studies).
This distances us -a lot- from real patient care, to the study of the clinical examination, which is based on the basic processes of physical examination such as auscultation, palpation, percussion and observation, which was what prevailed Until recently, but with the emergence of all that is technological machinery, it could happen that the patient's chest is no longer auscultated because the main thing is to do an X-ray or better a Computed Axial Tomography (CAT), if it's not already happening.
Thus, little by little, the medical staff is losing the doctor/patient contact, and I could call this dehumanization process, don't you think the same?.
This process is less accentuated in some developing countries where access to advanced imaging or laboratory studies such as PCR 1 among many others, is lower due to their high costs.
1, Polymerase Chain Reaction, very important for virus typing.
I practiced medicine in Venezuela, and I will not delve into the economic situation because it is not the meaning of this post, but the consequences that this had on professional health practice.
Not having imaging studies in a hospital, not even the most basic such as an echosonogram or X-rays, forced you to be more in contact with the patient, to ask him more about the evolution of the disease, when it had started, order of symptoms, to observe it more, to dedicate more time to it, to examine it, that is, the process was more humane and less technological.
At this point I must say that although the process was more humane it was also slower, it is something that I cannot put aside or omit. And this is the point that I must emphasize with the constant use of technology as diagnostic support, which speeds up the process, and can give faster and more precise specific results.
The problem I see is that the tendency to streamline processes, which is not bad, but somehow goes to the detriment of what is supposed to be the essence of humans, which is humanity.
I don't think one should be lost as the other is used, but the normal path seems to be that. The medical industry creates and markets machines that I don't think are designed only to help the patient, but to speed up and facilitate diagnostic processes, and that is undeniably very good, however, losing the possibility of talking to patients because we only focus on studies and also enter the same speed of the machines, it is dehumanizing ourselves.
The pandemic also created a space for consultations to be faster, remotely, and what it did was speed up this process even more, but the condition warranted it.
I'm not sure where we're going, but based on the fact that technology does nothing but evolve and get into every space of human life, I think that the process of distancing between patient and doctor will continue, it will in fact accentuate .
Conclusion
I think that medical staff should learn to use the technology they have available to help patients, but they should never lose sight of the fact that the main thing is to help the human being who comes for support, and that we use everything is within our reach, including robots if necessary, to help them, but that they feel cared for human to human.
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I believe technology is around to make medical work easier and effective the more even though it seems to be wrongly abused by some medical practitioner
Yes, there may be an abuse, it is likely that only some just use it without paying attention to what the patient feels... It is likely,
Thanks for this interesting blog! I have a couple of things to say here.
I think that it is really something that changes from one medical center another. In some places, the patient stays at the centres, in some others not really. Public versus private centres also makes a difference.
Now something I wanted to write since the title (I was afraid that you wouldn't even mention it in the blog): Remote appointments are sometimes the only way. For instance, if you live in a medical desert (and there are more and more of those), what could you do? Here, the choice is no appointment at all or a remote ones.
Cheers!
Public centres, I assume because resources are always more limited, force the relationship between doctor and patient to be closer, I'm sure.
Good point, in the pandemic it even worked a lot to help people, the online consultation really helped, and now it has become part of the system, because it was proven that in some opportunities it can help. Good point that you highlight here, we cannot put that aside, it is a plus point that despite the distance you can help certain people.
Thank you
You are welcome!
Cheers!
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Being a medical student I can understand your feelings and the purpose of your writing.
Our teachers have always focused more on the physical examinations and have taught us to make your diagnosis on the basis of examination and never order unnecessary tests, it just indicates your incompetentness and wastes patients money. At the same time we can't be thankful enough to science and technology, as it has made the process of diagnosis very easy and efficient.
And I personally believe that the relation of empathy between patient and doctor is as necessary as medicines😊
It is good that you have professors who emphasize the clinical examination, the symptomatology, it is very important.
Thank you for commenting. And yes, it is true, technology well used is often a great tool, that is undoubtedly true.
Like everyone , doctors are humans and can make mistakes, technologies will help to reduce these mistakes! for example people are developing lots of different AI projects with imaging, like tomography , x-ray etc! and during the research they are showing that this programs help to improve diagnose, sometimes doctors miss something, they have all the life pressure in the back right?
!1UP
Yes, this use of AI in the study of X-rays and CT scans is known to have helped a lot in the pandemic crisis, because the margin of error in the analysis of the studies decreased. When it comes down to it, it is undeniable that it adds value, and a lot of it, to the diagnostic process.
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