Techno-Innovation and its Impact on Provision
of Health and Social Care
Dr. Nancy Agnes, Head, Technical Operations, Tutorsindia info@ tutorsindia.com
I. INTRODUCTION
The scope for technological
innovation for transforming the provision
of health and social care has been widely
recognized across a large spectrum of
domains and this , also comprise of
services relating to mental health [1], cases
of substance abuse [2] and to extend
support to people who are categorized as
differently abled [3]. While the use of
technology is a good thing, a contrasting
aspect that has emerged would refer to the
concerns related to privacy, ethics and
ramifications in terms of social justice with
regards to the use of such innovative
technology. Technological developments
over the years, especially those involving
mobile
digital
information
and
communication technology is consistently
developing at a rate which is highly
exponential. Thus facilitating
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communication,
information
acquisition in highly innovative ways. It
has been observed that during 2013 around
36 million adults within the UK (73%)
were regularly accessing internet on a
daily basis while 72% amongst all adults
purchased goods and services online [4].
The number of people who accessed the
internet using smart phones literally
doubled in the period between 2010 –
2013 to 53%. On the whole, the number of
adults within the UK who owned a
smartphone was found to be around 51%
(double of what it was in 2011) and at the
same time, around 24% of adults are also
known to have a tablet. It has also been
reported that around 43% from all adults in
the UK were now utilizing the internet to
gain information pertaining to health. This
trend has witnessed an increase by 18%
since 2007.
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Figure 1: Health related Queries using
Smartphones – Keywords used
Source: Bach and Wenz [5]
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The purpose of this paper is to
investigate the challenges as well as
opportunities associated with a growing
use of technology within this context. At
the outset, some specific challenges would
be presented and this would be followed
by an attempt to consider technology that
would revolutionize several areas in terms
of delivery of social and healthcare.
II. CHALLENGES WITH
TECHNOLOGY USE
The foremost challenge associated
with the introduction of techno-driven
innovation in the domain of social and
healthcare would pertain to the capability
of staff, their motivation and training [6].
The provision of social and healthcare has
conventionally depended on interactions
that were largely face-to-face as a mode of
practice. Thus, any change in the
interpersonal nature of interactions has
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scope to be confronted as a challenge on
account of the status quo, and
professionals who are worried that the
skills they possess would not be applicable
to such changing settings [7]. Therefore, it
would not come across as a surprise when
the sector of social care and health have
been found to be comparatively slow in
adopting and embracing such novel
techno-developments,
especially
in
comparison with organizations that are
operating in the private sector [8]. Apart
from such practical challenges, issues
pertaining to ethics have also during the
use of innovative technology has emerged
as a challenge. One key challenge being
that technology is exacerbating certain
critical issues that have to be dealt by
health and social care professionals on a
daily basis. For instance, it has been
indicated through research that excessive
use of technology is causing depression
[9].
III. OPPORTUNITIES
Irrespective of the challenges
presented by technological innovation, it is
a matter of much significance that the
concerns above mentioned would not
result in an illogical tendency towards a
scepticism for technology at the cost of
the advantages or opportunities presented
through innovative technologies. As a m
tter of fact, it has been observed that
innovative technology on its own is largely
neutral and issues related to ethics only
arise with regards to how it has been or is
being used. This viewpoint has been
projected by Patricia M. Greenfield [10],
who deliberates that the influence of any
kind of technological development would
hinge on the manner in which it is used,
and further emphasizes that it would be
naïve to deem technology of any kind to be
essentially negative or positive. For
instance, though it has been acknowledged
younger people are exposed to certain risks
from technology, it would be necessary to
understand that technology offers a
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medium that allows the scope for creating
engagement
with
younger
people,
specifically young men, a category that
social care and health agencies have been
struggling to engage. It has also been
revealed
that
certain
conventional
interpersonal interventions like personcentric counselling, could be provided in
an effective manner with the help of new
mediums of technology.
IV. CONCLUSION
This brief essay has clearly
revealed certain specific challenges and
opportunities that are in existence for
technological innovation within the
context of delivering social and health
care. However, what is to be understood is
that it is the onus of managers,
practitioners and policy makers within the
domain who have the power to mould the
influence that such kind of technological
innovations could make. Some commonly
observed challenges of technology have
been covered through this essay, while
taking into account the opportunities that
are also in existence along with the
challenges. Tutors India offers the best
healthcare thesis and essay writing project
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REFERENCES
[1]
C. Hollis et al., “Technological innovations in
mental healthcare: harnessing the digital
revolution,” Br. J. Psychiatry, vol. 206, no. 4,
pp.
263–265,
Apr.
2015,
doi:
10.1192/bjp.bp.113.142612.
[2]
M. Bandawar, V. L. Narasimha, and P. Chand,
“Use of digital technology in addiction
disorders.,” Indian J. Psychiatry, vol. 60, no.
Suppl 4, pp. S534–S540, Feb. 2018, doi:
10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_21_18.
[3]
I. Svensson et al., “Effects of assistive
technology for students with reading and writing
disabilities,” Disabil. Rehabil. Assist. Technol.,
vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 196–208, Feb. 2021, doi:
10.1080/17483107.2019.1646821.
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[4]
Ofcom, “The Communications Market 2013,”
2013. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-anddata/multi-sector-research/cmr/cmr13 (accessed
Aug. 01, 2021).
[5]
R. L. Bach and A. Wenz, “Studying healthrelated internet and mobile device use using web
logs and smartphone records,” PLoS One, vol.
15, no. 6, p. e0234663, Jun. 2020, doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0234663.
[6]
P. Gillingham, “Electronic Information Systems
and Human Service Organizations: The
Unanticipated Consequences of Organizational
Change,” Hum. Serv. Organ. Manag. Leadersh.
Gov., vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 89–100, Mar. 2015, doi:
10.1080/23303131.2014.987412.
[7]
C. Berzin, S. C., Singer, J., & Chan, “Practice
Innovation through Technology in the Digital
Age: A Grand Challenge for Social Work,”
2015,
[Online].
Available:
https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/12/WP12-with-cover.pdf.
[8]
M. Shahbaz, C. Gao, L. Zhai, F. Shahzad, and
Y. Hu, “Investigating the adoption of big data
analytics in healthcare: the moderating role of
resistance to change,” J. Big Data, vol. 6, no. 1,
p. 6, Dec. 2019, doi: 10.1186/s40537-019-0170y.
[9]
W. T. Mok, R. Sing, X. Jiang, and S. L. See,
“Investigation of social media on depression,” in
The 9th International Symposium on Chinese
Spoken Language Processing, Sep. 2014, pp.
488–491, doi: 10.1109/ISCSLP.2014.6936690.
[10]
Patricia M. Greenfield, “Mind and Media The
Effects of Television, Video Games, and
Computers,” 2014, [Online]. Available:
https://www.routledge.com/Mind-and-MediaThe-Effects-of-Television-Video-Games-andComputers/Greenfield/p/book/9781138805958.
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