Own experiences so far of the digitization
I work at public healthcare sector in dental healthcare and at the moment in few projects that aim to for example add some digital ways of working to my workplace. It has as a whole been great even though it takes a lot of work. New digital ways to work are not always easy to take in use, but they have been worth it. At it’s best the digital way of working can save money, time and effort. And the colleagues excited to try new things are very precious and give motivation to continue. There are also some digital tools that we have tested but not all of them have been taken in to use for longer time. One of the reason is that they still need to develop to fit the public healthcare systems. In my company there have also recently been gathered from different units persons who wish to work as mentors in digital issues. The aim is to bring digital services and possibilities that are already in use closer to worker’s everyday life and to support co-workers if needed. In my company we also have an own team handling only the digital issues. But as the digitization goes on, it is also important to pay attention and remember digital safety in the everyday working life no matter how busy we sometimes are. In my company we are often reminded of things related to digital safety and also have regularly education related to it too.
There are many things already existing in my company related the digital ways of working but surely there are more to come in the future. New ways, new tools and new expertise. It is for example interesting to see are the AR-glasses some day in use. With them it would be possible e.g. show the patient what kind of results it is possible to achieve, if the patient engage with the treatment and advises related to dental health. There are also good tools related to interpretation that would be useful. I recently heard on the news also that the companies in Finland have started to test and even use the Metaverse, that opens a whole new world and possibilities in the ways of working. Both workers and clients’ points of view there are also maybe simpler ways to benefit from the digitization, without having to wait maybe so many years – for example many processes could be simpler, if automation would be utilized more.
Risks of open digital society
When thinking about the open digital society, it includes a lot of fun, lot of sharing and easiness of gathering with people that share the same interests and maybe problems. It may also reduce in a way loneliness. So good things, but there is also the flip side of the coin. This includes for example sharing too much and telling too much about yourself or your personal issues. You may get help, but also the risk of abuse it there too. So its very important to think carefully what to share during this time of the open digital society and what should be kept carefully private. And what could be done to keep your private stuff safe and private.
Like Andy Yen says in one of the course videos, some of us remember how was life before the Internet, but today there is a new generation that have been taught from a very young age to share everything online, and this is a generation which is not going to remember when data was private. Imagine how true that is. Sometimes the elder people complain to younger ones that they must have their smartphones glued to their hand, as they cannot seem to be able to let it be for a minute, but that is how the new generation is. I’m little bit afraid that people don’t nowadays have time and willing to think about for example what kind of consequences there might be if sharing too much one’s own or even other peoples issues.
What comes to the Data protection reform, I think it is a very good thing that it exists. As they say, the EU has the strongest data protection rules in the world and the protection of personal data is considered a fundamental right in the EU. The EU general data protection regulation (GDPR) not only effect on the personal life but working life too. The GDPR creates a good basis for individuals as well as for companies to act safely and fairly in the Internet. These are guidelines that I also try to follow in my personal life. In my workplace we have studied in a general level what the GDPR means, and surely the IT department is even more deeply aware of the GDPR related issues. However, no matter how clearly the things are tried to be regulated and explained I’m afraid there is always a way to kind of twist and misinterpret them. So no matter how much there are regulations etc. it is always important to try to be as careful as possible, use time and learn about e.g. safety related issues and last but not least to use a common sense.
Self evaluation
The videos and other course material were very educative and made me think of the future we have ahead what comes to the digital society. And there is a lot more to learn about the topic and new innovations appear all the time. You may also try to be as careful as possible online, but still it’s good to try to be even more of it. The amount of data today is enormous that there is available, and the value of big data actually is that you have more information, as Kenneth Cukier says in one of the course videos. And the companies also want to know as much as possible about persons for e.g. marketing purposes. Andy Yen really made me think again the safety of for example emails in one of the videos. You cannot be careful enough. And when I listened James Lyne telling about criminals that there are online – providing even technical support – I learned that there can really be found everything online.
There are risks related to it too, but still I look forward to see how the digital world will look like after years. As Marco Annunziata said in one of the course videos, we are moving towards a world where machines are not just intelligent, they are brilliant – they are self-aware, predictive, social and reactive. And listening to SixthSense technology by Pranav Mistry made me wonder that when this kind of great technology gets more common among us? The video was from the year 2009, so as we can see the technological reforms don’t always happen very fast. Also in the video “Watch your day in 2020” there were many technological e.g. tools introduced that were predicted to be common in the year 2020. It is now 2023, and I don’t see them very common yet, but maybe one day our homes will look different as well as our working places as was introduced in the video “Office of Today, Workplace of Tomorrow”. Robots and other kinds of machines with their own kind of strength will surely be more common in the future, as they develop. I hope they bring help and efficiency to the ways of working efficient for example to the healthcare sector without forgetting both worker and customer oriented point of view.
I commented the following blogs:
Tiina: https://blogi.savonia.fi/tiinaarajarvi/digi-society/
Sirpa: https://blogi.savonia.fi/sirpapitkaniemi/digi-society/
Thaks for your intresting point of view about digitalization in dental health care. I’m so glad to here that there is positive wibes and expectations towards digitalization in your working environment. I’ve been working as a radiographer in private and public sector and in both places there have been so much resistance for new ways of doing things. I got the point that it is first hard to use some new digisystems. My opinion is that it is worth it if the system is working well and isn’t increasing the amount of work.
So cool you bring the idea of using VR-googles in work! Wow! That would be super cool to see what is the expected result of the treatment. 3D technology is already very advanced in health care, so VR-googles would show it even better.
Even I’ve born 1992 I’m the one who is wondering how much everything is based in social media ja sharing information. It’s not a bad thing if people know and care about how much details they are telling about their life, but it can also be harmful. Bullying and critisism in social media is pretty harsh.
It is very important that new digital innovations are able to be piloted first and then decide if they are good enough to use in practice. Sometimes it is important to change some parts of innovations and then try again with better success.
I agree with you that regular digital safety education at the workplaces is very important and needs to be paid attention to.
We have to find new ways to inspire patients to take care of their own health, and VR-glasses sound quite fun as a digital device for that purpose in the future. As you wrote, preventive treatments are saving money, time and increasing patient’s health.