Online Undergraduate Course
NURS 410 - Health Care Delivery Systems & Informatics
Module 13: Innovative and Emerging Technologies in Healthcare
Introduction - Innovative and Emerging Technologies
Emerging technologies can be referred to as “disruptive” technologies. A disruptive technology is an innovation that replaces long-held ideas and ways of doing things in a way that is unexpected. Healthcare has felt the impact of disruptive technology. For example, remote patient monitoring is changing the way we provide care. EHRs are seen as disruptive because they are innovative ideas that replaced traditional methods and established new consumer markets. The Human Genome Project, in which findings were accelerated through the use of computer technology, has provided knowledge that could lead to genetic profiling and the creation of personalized medicine such as designer drugs targeted to individualized needs.
"As the future is uncertain, the only thing relatively clear is that much of what we will experience in the future will be different from the past. We must understand it is not information or even technology that will produce this unprecedented change, but the impact of technology on all aspects of human life; not computers or even bits and bytes, but the ability to apply and integrate rapid technological change” (National Defense University, n.d, para. 1).
Modern healthcare is changing and many forces are responsible for this transformation. Technological advancement is leading the change in the way healthcare and nursing is practiced. There are many emerging technologies that will change the practice of nursing and healthcare in general. For these technologies to work in advancing healthcare in the next decade, nurses will need to acquire some core skill sets in order to use and integrate these technologies in healthcare delivery. Finally, nurse leaders will face enormous challenges in integrating these emerging technologies. These technologies, the core skill sets required, and the challenges nurses and healthcare leaders will face in integrating the new and emerging technologies are presented in tabular format in the subsequent sections.
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