Healthc Inform Res.  2020 Oct;26(4):328-334. 10.4258/hir.2020.26.4.328.

Impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the Health Sector: A Qualitative Study

• Castro e Melo JAGdMe
• Faria Araújo NM

• KMID: 2508625
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4258/hir.2020.26.4.328

Abstract

Objectives
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the way health is understood, transforming the methods of treatment and diagnosis as well as the relationship between health professionals and patients and altering the management and organization of health systems. The main objective of this study was to explore the impact that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is having on the health sector.
Methods
Conducting interviews consisting of four questions with 10 professionals who had experience working in the health sector to gain their insights and to obtain information to meet the general objective of the study as well as its specific objectives.
Results
From the analysis of the respondents’ responses, it was possible to create five dimensions developed by the topics most addressed by respondents, namely, impact on healthcare efficiency and effectiveness, impact on government action, impact on human resources, impact on health system organization, and financial impact on the health sector.
Conclusions
Although the Fourth Industrial Revolution is still at an early stage, it has been concluded that it is having a major positive impact on the health sector. For the effective and efficient implementation of these disruptive technologies, a global interaction between governments, health professionals, stakeholders, and society is essential to make this change possible.

Keyword

Artificial Intelligence, Disruptive Technology, Health Care Reform, Health Care Sector, Technology Assessment

Reference

References

1. Schwab K. The Fourth Industrial Revolution. London, UK: Portfolio Penguin;2017.

2. Bardin L. Content analysis. Análise de conteúdo. Lisbon, Portugal: Edições 70 Publisher;2009.

3. Eysenbach G, Jadad AR. Evidence-based patient choice and consumer health informatics in the Internet age. J Med Internet Res. 2001; 3(2):E19.

4. Free C, Phillips G, Watson L, Galli L, Felix L, Edwards P, et al. The effectiveness of mobile-health technologies to improve health care service delivery processes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS Med. 2013; 10(1):e1001363.

5. Evans DB, Hsu J, Boerma T. Universal health coverage and universal access. Bull World Health Organ. 2013; 91(8):546–546A.

6. Moreno LV, Ruiz ML, Hernandez JM, Duboy MA, Linden M. The role of smart homes in intelligent homecare and healthcare environments. Dobre C, Mavromoustakis CX, Garcia N, Goleva R, Mastorakis G, editors. Ambient assisted living and enhanced living environments. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann;2017. p. 345–394.

7. The World Bank. Life expectancy at birth, total (years) [Internet]. Washington (DC): World Bank;c2020. [cited at 2020 Sep 15]. Available from: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN .

8. Garraway LA, Verweij J, Ballman KV. Precision oncology: an overview. J Clin Oncol. 2013; 31(15):1803–5.

9. Schwaederle M, Parker BA, Schwab RB, Daniels GA, Piccioni DE, Kesari S, et al. Precision oncology: The UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center PREDICT experience. Mol Cancer Ther. 2016; 15(4):743–52.

10. Rhee H, Miner S, Sterling M, Halterman JS, Fairbanks E. The development of an automated device for asthma monitoring for adolescents: methodologic approach and user acceptability. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2014; 2(2):e27.

11. Lee WS, Ahn SM, Chung JW, Kim KO, Kwon KA, Kim Y, et al. Assessing concordance with Watson for Oncology, a cognitive computing decision support system for colon cancer treatment in Korea. JCO Clin Cancer Inform. 2018; 2:1–8.

12. Bringing precision medicine to community oncologists. Cancer Discov. 2017; 7(1):6–7.

13. Bodner J, Wykypiel H, Wetscher G, Schmid T. First experiences with the Da Vinci operating robot in thoracic surgery. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2004; 25(5):844–51.

14. Bonjer HJ, Deijen CL, Haglind E. COLOR II Study Group. A randomized trial of laparoscopic versus open surgery for rectal cancer. N Engl J Med. 2015; 373(2):194.

15. Ishak WH, Siraj F. Artificial intelligence in medical application: an exploration. Kedah, Malaysia: Universiti Utara Malaysia;2008.

16. Rowe AK, Rowe SY, Vujicic M, Ross-Degnan D, Chalker J, Holloway KA, et al. Review of strategies to improve health care provider performance. Peters DH, El-Saharty S, Siadat B, Janovsky K, Vujicic M, editors. Improving health service delivery in developing countries: from evidence to action. Washington (DC): World Bank;2009. p. 101–26.

17. Khalil MM, Jones R. Electronic health services: an introduction to theory and application. Libyan J Med. 2007; 2(4):202–10.

18. Jee K, Kim GH. Potentiality of big data in the medical sector: focus on how to reshape the healthcare system. Healthc Inform Res. 2013; 19(2):79–85.

19. Melchiorre MG, Papa R, Rijken M, van Ginneken E, Hujala A, Barbabella F. eHealth in integrated care programs for people with multimorbidity in Europe: Insights from the ICARE4EU project. Health Policy. 2018; 122(1):53–63.

20. Machluf Y, Tal O, Navon A, Chaiter Y. From population databases to research and informed health decisions and policy. Front Public Health. 2017; 5:230.

21. Rallapalli S, Minalkar A, Gondkar RR. Improving healthcare-big data analytics for electronic health records on cloud. J Adv Inf Technol. 2016; 7(1):65–9.

22. Furnell S, Lambrinoudakis C, Pernul G. Trust, privacy and security in digital business. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing;2018.

23. Weizenbaum J. ELIZA: a computer program for the study of natural language communication between man and machine. Commun ACM. 1966; 9(1):36–45.

24. Shortliffe EH, Perreault LE. Medical informatics: computer applications in health care. New York (NY): Springer;2001.

25. Suchman AL, Markakis K, Beckman HB, Frankel R. A model of empathic communication in the medical interview. JAMA. 1997; 277(8):678–82.

26. Quill TE. Recognizing and adjusting to barriers in doctor-patient communication. Ann Intern Med. 1989; 111(1):51–7.

27. Charon R. Narrative medicine: a model for empathy, reflection, profession, and trust. JAMA. 2001; 286(15):1897–902.

28. Mercuri RT. The HIPAA-potamus in health care data security. Commun ACM. 2004; 47(7):25–8.

29. Gallouj F. Innovation in services and the attendant old and new myths. J Socio Econ. 2002; 31(2):137–54.

30. Schwab K, Davis N. Shaping the future of the fourth industrial revolution. Redfern, Australia: Currency Press;2018.