The current trends within the medical technology arena will affect the delivery of health care services in the future in several ways. As noted by Pfeiffer (2009), effective and efficient delivery of healthcare services depends upon quick access to relevant medical information. In this regard, Pfeiffer states that ongoing enhancements in computer storage and data retrieval will enable improved and quicker service in the future across diverse medical facilities and centers.
Another giant stride that will strongly affect the delivery of healthcare services is the current trend away from medical information access via technologies that do not feel intuitive to medical staff, e.g., keyboard, mouse, etc. Instead of turning clinicians into computer operators, the trend is to develop interfaces with technology that are far more user friendly and intuitive (e.g., digital pens, voice activated charting). According to Procuniar and Murphy (2008), this trend will allow the clinicians of the future to be more focused on direct care and less utilized in clerical activity as well as allow for decreased time to access information.
Another way in which service delivery is going to be strongly impacted is in terms of 'who' is delivering the services. Eljamel (2009) states that current trends in robosurgery are making it more and more likely that electro-mechanical devices will be more frequently used in the operating theater.
Finally, perhaps the greatest impact current trends in medical technology are going to have on the impact of healthcare service delivery is simply that improvements in medical technology are going to allow for a global expansion of services, which is to say that more services will reach more people. Indeed, Hanson (2008) reports that service delivery is going to be so expanded by improvements in medical technology that by the end of this century, maybe long before, the pattern of mortality in third world will s...