Emerging Technologies in Healthcare: Interpersonal and Client-Based Perspectives

Killingback, Clare; Naylor, John

Abstract

Modern healthcare has made substantial strides in improving the health and well-being of people through technological advances. Despite such progress, there remains a sense that something may be missing. For example, there have been growing calls from patient organizations for transformational change toward a more humanized healthcare that places people at its heart. It is precisely these personalized approaches that healthcare providers should be prioritizing over impersonal, automated procedures, which can often result from a growing reliance on technology. The aim of this chapter is to open a discourse on the interplay between emergent health technology and its human operators and recipients, with the hope of raising awareness of some possible limitations. Some forms of healthcare technology clearly offer more efficiency, but this may be at the expense of the more qualitative aspects of care, those that can add value and meaning to many people's lives. It is the view of the authors that healthcare cannot and should not be reduced to a narrow range of objective measures and quantifiable outcomes, since this would be to relegate the importance of human lived experience, detaching individuals from the context of their being a whole person. The authors feel it important to remind fellow healthcare professionals that health is not simply about addressing a body's physical dysfunction: Health is about wholeness, and healthcare is about people. This should not be taken to be a Luddite stance, since we do not necessarily regard technology as inherently bad, but more from the perspective that technology plays a role, positively or negatively, in shaping healthcare. What we have sought to do here is to highlight the importance of championing healthcare professionals who can harness technology while preserving a person-centered approach.

Citation

Killingback, C., & Naylor, J. (2024). Emerging Technologies in Healthcare: Interpersonal and Client-Based Perspectives. In C. M. Hayre, D. Muller, M. Scherer, P. M. Hackett, & A. Gordley-Smith (Eds.), Emerging Technologies in Healthcare Interpersonal and Client Based Perspectives. CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003272786-1

• Online Publication Date: Mar 29, 2024
• Publication Date: Mar 29, 2024
• Deposit Date: Apr 15, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 30, 2025
• Publisher: CRC Press
• Series Title: Rehabilitation Science in Practice Series
• Book Title: Emerging Technologies in Healthcare Interpersonal and Client Based Perspectives
• Chapter Number: 1
• ISBN: 9781032224985
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003272786-1
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4625198