Introduction
In this article, the authors investigate one of the current health-related issues – the implementation of the newest technologies in the health care industry and their impact on providing medical care. They focus attention on such devices as smartphones used for self-monitoring the condition of an individual’s health, electronic health records, and genetic tests. The central research problem is the influence of the digital revolution on the health care sector and the quality of provided medical aid services. The authors do not determine research questions. Nevertheless, taking a closer look at the content of the research paper, it is evident that research questions are the following: how do patients and health care professionals perceive the introduction of the newest technologies in the health care sector and what are the most troubling ethical issues related to this matter of concern? They motivate the investigation of this problem by pointing to the fact that there was no comprehensive assessment of the issue conducted. So, it is essential to fill the existing gap in this area of knowledge to benefit the further implementation of the newest technologies and find ways to upgrade them so that they satisfy both doctors and patients.
Research method analysis
The initial objective of the research article is to identify the primary trends in the perception of the newest technologies in hospital units and determine whether the attitudes are positive or negative. According to the findings of the research, the positions of consumers and health care professionals differ, as patients support the Implementation of the newest technologies in the health care system, while physicians and nurses feel less enthusiastic about the novelties (Boeldt et al., 2015). The authors arrived at such conclusions by conducting a survey covering patients and health care providers.
The authors choose to ignore the necessity of including a literature review in their paper. Nevertheless, there is a detailed comparison of their findings with the results of prior research, which can partially substitute the review of relevant literature. Still, this scholarly article focuses on studying relevant and up-to-date health-related issues, as the introduction of the newest technologies in the health care sector is the latest trend in health promotion and improving the quality of provided services. In the United States, there is the initiative of the overall digitalization of hospitals using implementing electronic health record software and offering various options for tracking medication needs and procedures as well as contact doctors via smartphone applications. For this reason, the chosen article is current.
This research is a non-experimental one, as no experiments or tests were necessary for arriving at the primary conclusion. Instead, the authors deploy a qualitative research tool for carrying out their investigations. This choice is appropriate because they focus on collecting opinions and perceptions related to the use of smartphones, electronic health records, and genetic tests. To address research questions properly and draw accurate conclusions, the authors selected both patients and health care providers as respondents. The sample is made up of 1102 consumers and 1406 health care providers. This sample size is appropriate for addressing the purpose of the research. Nevertheless, it is somewhat biased because it would be better to include the same number of patients and hospital professionals to guarantee accurate findings. Even though proportions were mentioned and explained, they do not mitigate the potential risk of misunderstanding the findings of the research. In case of including a different number of respondents belonging to different groups, additional calculations are required for obtaining an in-depth understanding of the real situation, as 10% of consumer respondents are not equal to 10% of health care providers respondents.
This research is practically applicable to the understanding of the current health care sector modernization. It can be deployed for eliminating or upgrading the aspects of the newest technologies, which consumers and professionals find complicated to cope with or run. For instance, health care professionals would like to feel more empowered when using the newest technologies and believe that some medical tests recommended by the devices are unnecessary. The authors suggest that their article is a significant contribution to the future research effort in this area of knowledge. As for now, this study is a valuable source for understating the attitudes of consumers and health care professionals. Nevertheless, there are still ways to improve the paper. First and foremost, including a literature review section would benefit the paper. For example, it is advisable to mention some details on the areas of introducing smartphones and electronic health record software as well as opportunities they offer and specificities of their application. Another way to make the article more persuasive, it is advisable to include the same number of consumers and health care professionals in the research sample. The rationale for this recommendation was specified above.
Conclusion
Also, it should be mentioned that the writing in the article is straightforward and the authors organize the flow of the paper. Both language and formatting are appropriate. A reader can choose the section they find interesting and easily understand it because the language is simple, facts are properly mentioned and explained, and no unnecessary details are mentioned. Finally, this research can be supplemented by conducting more studies in the future due to numerous limitations. For example, the authors recognize that the percentage of eligible respondents was low. It means that cooperating with more eligible respondents is one potential way to conduct further research in this area. Moreover, estimating opinions in different sectors of the health care industry is also an option. Finally, carrying out numerous state-based investigations or including different social groups of the population (e.g. dividing respondents based on age, gender, or their social status) is a valuable idea for further research. Even though in this study, respondents mentioned this information, it was not specified how these details influenced the perception of the newest technologies.
To sum up, this research article is a comprehensive study, which is beneficial for obtaining an in-depth understanding of the ways people see the implementation of the newest technologies in the health care industry. I am strongly inclined to believe that the authors’ choices were, for the most part, appropriate and study is a real breakthrough in this area of knowledge and fills the existing gap. If I were a health care provider planning to introduce electronic health record software and genetic tests as well as promote the use of smartphones, there is no doubt that I would conduct thorough research for finding out the views of consumers and professionals (i.e. my colleagues) on the issue under consideration. Because this article is a comprehensive study, I would most definitely choose it as the primary source of the necessary information.
Reference
Boeldt, D. L., Wineinger, N. E., Waalen, J., Gollamudi, S., Grossberg, A., Steinhubl, S. R., … Topol, E. J. (2015). How consumers and physicians view new medical technology: Comparative survey. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17(9), e215. Web.