4980204 Chariyaphorn Patanakullert ICIS 486 Ethics and Technology: Essay#2 March 28th, 2011 Medical Technology: Are

There Still Doctors? Technology changes the environment in such a way that we cannot go back. We are now living in a society that may become, is becoming, or has become Technopoly by us relying more and more on technology. These changes have effects on our lives in which one clear example could possibly be the health effects. We used to get sick from dengue, influenza, or any other local sicknesses. Now many people fall sick more because of pollution from our cars, radiation from our microwave ovens or even because of the food we eat that might have been genetically modified. But what is still the same is when we are sick, we seek for care. I do not say that when we are sick, we go to see the doctor because, unfortunately, seeking for care seems to be the only thing that remains unchanged while the medical care has now been enhanced by what we know as the medical technology in which we might not have to see the doctor anymore. By our medical care being advanced, it should sound good to us, but we must also accept that our treatment has also been changed. We used to have direct communication with doctors when we went to see them and they checked our medical records, questioned us about how we felt, when it happened, and what we did, d iagnosed, and prescribed some medication based on their expertise and experience. I remember how impressive and smart I thought the doctors were when they gave us explanations on our illness and advices on how to care ourselves. Then it became the situation when we still had direct communication with doctors when we went to see them and they made the same process of checking our records, questioning us but before prescribing some medication, they used a tool called stethoscope to listen to our inner body parts. By this way, they still looked impressive and smart explaining and giving us advices but even more with the use of some technological devices. And then the medical technology has been evolved to become a situation where there is indirect communication between patients and doctors because they will only examine us or our tissues through photographs using different machines controlled by different specialists. Now it seems like the machines are even more impressive and smarter giving us exact results than the doctors as the doctors use those machines just to prescribe more medication. It may sound ridiculous to some but as more and more technology comes into play, I am now concerned with whether there still be doctors for us today and in the future.

4980204 Chariyaphorn Patanakullert ICIS 486 Ethics and Technology: Essay#2 March 28th, 2011 I raised this question because doctors today tend to rely more on technology. The doctors are forced by the availability of the technology to use it as people now believe they can receive faster and better results from the advanced machines. Additionally, many more patients tend to perceive that doctors who do not use those technologies are incompetent and unreliable, so if there are two clinics in which one is a local clinic with no machines while the other is a clinic fully equipped with X-ray, CAT scanners, and some others, most patients would rather choose to go see the doctor in the second clinic as they perceive it to be more advanced no matter how much they have to pay higher. Consequently, more and more doctors are forced to turn to more technological equipments as supported by the medical education and institutions that have also turned to focus more on the use of th machines ese rather than on the treatment methods. Because of more reliance on technology, there seems to be less function as a doctor. There is no longer need for the doctors to check our records or question us anything. The machines will do their jobs checking us and giving the results to the doctors. The doctors will then stay further away from us and focus more on machines than patients. Th do not need ey to talk to the patients as much as they perceive that the results from the machines are a lot more trustworthy than what the patients sayit takes less time but is more profitable for them. The doctors will now work more as the readers or the interpreters of the machine results in which they become less able to examine and even doubt their own diagnosis. The reasons why they still depend on technology not on their own expertise are probably because of the accuracy and efficiency. The machines are less biased and can produce accurate results in a short time. They are so accurate that doctors are no longer perceived to be reliable or good enough for the patients. However, these machines are accurate only to some certain degree. If we talk about the broken machines, we might say we are just unlucky. But until someone realizes that they are broken, the doctors might have used the results as they tend to believe more in machines. Who pay for the effects of believing in the results from the broken machines are not the doctors but the patients who might get worse because of the incorrect results. Nevertheless, what I mean to some certain degree is something beyond machines being broken it is the input by the machine makers or programmers. Thus, the machines will work only with what those makers have programmed in them. As I have mentioned in the beginning that the technology changes the environment; new types of diseases may also be developed along with other technological development in 2

4980204 Chariyaphorn Patanakullert ICIS 486 Ethics and Technology: Essay#2 March 28th, 2011 which the machines might return the wrong results to the doctors because the machines are less able to conclude and try to make the same conclusion although the patients are different and new diseases may have been built up. The same process may sadly be repeated agan by i doctors having inaccurate interpretation as they totally believe in the machines than themselves, so who pay for the effects again are not the doctors but the sick patients. By the doctors being less able to examine and by them relying more on technoogy, l we, the patients, tend to pay more for the costs on our health. First of all, the medication prescribed to the patients is usually more than necessary, but the patients still have to pay more although they might become sicker by overdosing it. Second there seem to be sidely, effects that may have resulted from medication and from using the technological machines especially from the radiation. Then we will need another set of medication and machines to examine, which will again cost the patients a lot more, just to try to solve for the new problems caused by the technology itself. The side -effects do not mean that the doctors and the technology fail but, in facts, they focus more on the results that they think they have successfully cured the first type of disease rather than focusing on the effects that may cause the patients illness or death. Accordingly, it seems like the medical care now cares more about diseases than the patients. The doctors could have advised the patients how to stay healthy at home and stay away from the medical treatment or could have warned them for the unnecessary operations if they care more about the patients not the money. All in all, with the use of unnecessary technology, doctors may then have to charge a lot from the pati nts in e which it will increase the gap between the rich and the poor in the society. The poor will not be able to afford the high costs of medical care although they would still become sick due to the altered environment. The poor stay shorter while the rich live longer. The society will turn to the point where only money that matters. There will be less humanity as people will do their best in anything just to become rich to be able to afford the costs from more and more of convenience and efficiencywith too much of technology people will be treated as means only when we care less and less about other people and as there will be less social communication by people choosing to become more isolated from others. In the near future, not only the definition of doctor that might be totally different from today or in the past, a job as a doctor may also be easily and completely replaced by technology as they are now starting to do less work as doctors but to rely more on machines.

4980204 Chariyaphorn Patanakullert ICIS 486 Ethics and Technology: Essay#2 March 28th, 2011 I do not know about the future but I still have a strong faith that there are still doctors who only use the technology just to confirm their diagnosis in which they still can do so even the devices such as stethoscope or something more advanced are not with them. I will continue my study in medicine so I always like to stay in my mothers clinic. I always saw her carefully explaining the case to her patients to make sure they can notice the symptoms and prevent themselves from falling sick, and giving them just enough and just right medication. However, everything might have already changed after I have become a doctor, so if I am asked whether I want to go back or not, I will say no, but I must add that we should be able to control the technology. The doctors should be more confident in their expertise and experience, not to be too dependent on technology unnecessarily, try their best on treating illness, and give the patients what they really need. Without being too reliant on technology, we can then help more people in the world, no ma rich or poor, even in the tter place so remote that there is no electricity and no technology possibly available.