Digitalisation in my own field of expertise
I graduated as a public health nurse and a nurse in 2003 when digitalisation in healthcare was just starting to develop. Example data processing lessons at school in year 1999 started with task: how to start the computer. By then I remember that patient record documentation and storage maintenance was sustained partly by hands in some hospitals and nursing facilities. Big X-ray sheets were also given manually to doctor in brown carton envelope. Since then, this digital transformation has demanded huge infrastuctural and expenditure resouces to educate employees and purchase all technology and eguipments what was required.
From those days technology and digital servises has become an essential part of healthcare systems and it has changed hole structure of social- and healthcare. Since my graduation, within these over 20 years, technological innovations and digital technology has become important part of our daily life. Digital skills are part of education and learning from preschool to university of elderly people. Mobile fones as well as other smart devices are commonly used and example healthcare services are nowadays widely executed via internet and virtual services/clinics.
So, what benefits can we get with this digital transformation? Example In healthcare it can improve effectiveness and accessibility, provide uninterrupted healthcare services, help monitoring,retaining and utilize the data and bring personalized treatments and therapy to patients. Digital technology is very usefull with long distance patients and example digital alarms as well as messages are easily monitored. Digital technology can be also used in education, simulation and training and it can provide massive amount of information.
It’s also important to remember, that digitalisation can create risks example with electronic health record (EHR), authentication and individual’s privacy. In Finland there has been some major cyber- attacks, but the most severe was in year 2020, when psychotherapycenter Vastaamo’s EHR ended up to criminals. Also it needs to take notice of, that not everybody has the same completeness or resources to adopt new digital services or devices. That includes healthcare sector workers. There has also been some challenges with attitudes towards using and learning new digital services, which needs to take consider in training. Furthermore, it’s import to remember that virtual service or contact can’t always replace the actual fysical appoinment and it doesn’t suit to everybody.
So we can say, that digitalisation in healthcare is currently widely changing hole field of healthcare industry. There has been, and will be , fast development in digital innovations such as digital technologies, artificial intelligence, different kind of app’s or wearable medical devices for diseases like Parkinsons, heart failure or Diabetes. Virtual reality is also innovative and powerfull tool in healthcare and it can be used example in simulation, exposure therapy, pain management, post-traumatic stress disorder treatment and physical rehabilitation. AI based robotic surgery is constantly developing and eHealth services can help people to maintain their well-beeing as well as prevent illness. There is also development with smart textiles and different kind of medical devices.
To me, It seems that in future different types of AI based services are increasing and machine learning will be used in personalized healthcare, calculating risks of illness and preventing them as well as increasing well-being. In the future digital technology has a enormous potential for improve communication, transmit information and develop healthcare systems toward more accessible and individual centered approach.
Risks of open digital society
Nowadays we live in society, where almost every factor of our lives is connected with data. Most of the services we are using is collecting, analysing and storing our personal information example address, name or phone number. Because our lives revolves around data, it is important to ensure that people has control over their personal data. European union regulated Genereal Data Protection Regulation on May 25, 2018 which is the toughest privacy and security law in the world. It’s main purpose was to establish common rules for data processing whereby individuals can control their personal information. The GDPR applies to both public and private sector within the EU and European economic area.
In healthcare data protection principles are crucial, because numerous employees can get access to patients sensitive documents which contain personal data example medical history, laboratory tests or medication. GDPR in healthcare helps to ensure security, demonstrate a commitment to privacy and mitigate the risk of breaches. Besides that it’s important to recognize, that there can be data’s malicious misuse, exploitation or other kind of data breaches. GDPR data protection principles gives outlines example with purpose limitation, lawfulness, data minimization, integrity, confidentiality and storage limitation. In healthcare, organisations need to ask patient consent to record their personal data. I think it’s also important, that patient is informed how the personal data is collected, processed and storaged. Patien has also right to request information on who has processed his/hers data and why, which increases the transparency of both data handling and healthcare actions. Nowdays it’s great that within authentication patient can also handle their patient matters around the clock digitally example in MyKanta-service
Open digital society can also cause some problems. Example all kind of organisations are sending private emails to customers and sometimes some of those can be a phishing email. With this kind of scams, criminals are able to get access to individuals account credentials or payment card information. This kind of danger makes me wonder, how we can spot the difference between the ”real email” and a fake one? If organisation finds out there’s a breach, it is fortunately oblicated to report that within 72 hours. In healthcare one major challenge is that data protection requires big investments and regular risk assessment, because electronic health records store amounts of sensitive patient data. Adequate handling of the data also requires employees training, which is money and time consuming. I’ve seen within couple of years that continuing changes and demands of learning new regulations, softwares and operating models are getting employees exhausted.
Chat GPT
Chat GPT was totally new tool for me, but it was quite fun to ask different question and find out how the answers vary by changing the content of the question. Due internet Chat GPT is praised to be increasingly accurate with the information it’s giving. It can also give you usefull ideas and quick overall data when you are starting new project. Chat GPT can be programmed to respond multiple languages and the basic version is free, so it’s very user friendly.
You also need to be aware, that there is some limitations of using the tool and one of the biggest is Chat GPT’s limited knowledge base. Chat GPT often gives you generic advice without the recent new information and it’s incompetent to work creatively or intuitive. That can misinform the user if you don’t check the information for it’s accuracy. One of the challenge is also Chat GPT’s sensitive to phrasing, when it doesn’t understand the question. Nice thing about the Chat GPT is, that it’s easy to achieve and use. I think It can ”work” like an assistant, but it really can’t replace the actual work of human being. Furthermore nursing is a evidence based practise so it is based on scientific evicende. Therefor I think Chat GPT is maybe more usefull in personal use or in other industry than in the healthcare.
I asked chat GPT about the benefits what digitalisation has given to healthcare. The answer was pretty good and versatile, where you could get the main aspects of the benefits quickly. When I changed the question a little bit, Chat GPT was also able to name some negative affects with digitalisation in healthcare.
Then I wanted to test Chat GPT’s ability to understand illigal question and I asked: how to scam an email. Chat GPT answered: ” I can’t assist with that” so it spotted the unlawful aspect of the question.
Chat GPT gave me least versatile answer, when I asked about the palliative care in hospital. Answer was really long, but the viewpoint was only in the laws and regulation in United states of America. Maybe that improves when Chat GPS’s knowledge base expand globally and it’s trained in comtemporaneus material.
Self -evaluation
When I started this assigment it felt a bit difficult, because I haven’t ever done a blog and It’s been years when I last needed to study in english. But on the other hand, it was really good to improve my language skills and find out new information about digitalisation. Digitalisation in general, but also in healthcare, is developing rapidly and I think it’s important to be aware both benefits and pittfalls. This assigment highlighted to me, how important the information security and you own behavior is when you are protecting your personal data. It was also interesting to ponder what kind of new possibilities digitalisation can bring in future because I’m currently doing my thesis about digitalisation in AT- home hospital. In the future, I’d like to find out more information about digi-protection and information security.
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Digi Society – Kaisa’s Blog (savonia.fi) and DIGI SOCIETY | Karoliinan ajatuksia (savonia.fi)