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Technological determinism and eHealth January 27, 2004

Posted by Hans in : nature of ehealth , 2comments

During a team meeting at the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation yesterday, a point was raised about an assumption that we may all unconsciously have regarding the use of ICTs to improve health and health care (i.e., technological determinism). I stumbled across an interesting quotation by a newly appointed VP to an “eHealth” company called Medseek.

“Information technology within the Canadian healthcare system remains the key in improving the quality and delivery of patient care. In light of ongoing budgetary constraints and human resources shortages, Canadian hospitals must continuously find innovative ways to reduce costs and increase funding.”

Of course, the VP suggested his products and company is the solution, but that’s not the point. My question is perhaps a little more basic: how do we really know that ehealth and technology will cause positive change? I do not doubt that there will be change, but will it necessarily be an improvement or positive. Neil Postman wrote about technology inherently facilitating (or perhaps even forcing) human beings to change, but cautioned that we do not really understand the nature of this change. Can it be that we change, but don’t realize the implications and/or the consequences which may be either positive or negative?

You can read the full quotation and announcement in the press release.

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A new beginning… January 26, 2004

Posted by Hans in : site announcement , add a comment

Welcome to Hans Oh’s eHealth Blog. As with the general site, www.hansoh.com, this blog has and continues to undergo changes – hopefully for the better.

FYI…

1. This blog’s location is now “http://www.blog.hansoh.com” as I’ve acquired web-hosting services from a great company called Ixwebhosting.

2. Mailing updates are now available. You just need to contact me and I’ll put you on a mailing list so you can get the latest posting. Blogger.com is also offering atom feeds. I’ll post more about that later.

3. If you’re interested, you can view the updated hansoh.com site that is to be posted soon. I think you’ll notice that it’s an homage to the www.apple.com site.

Popularity: 8% [?]