Research the following topics and post your comments/reflections on the following questions in your blog:
1. What are some of the ways IT has improved health care as mentioned in the website?
2. How can health officials use technology to study the impact of health interventions and disease prevention programs?
3. What types of countries can benefit from distance learning the most and how? Discuss specific examples of how distance learning can be used.
Extra credit opportunity - 6 additional points. In your blog post describe how IT is being used in the fields of medicine and education in the country you researched.
IT is making great strides in global healthcare as well as health care here in the US. One way in which advances are being made is with electronic health records. Now a patients record can be accessed from anywhere in the world. This can help doctors evaluate a patient quicker and more accurately than in the past when only paper records were available. Another way it is advancing is with camera based care. Now doctors half way across the world can access a patient via video camera and help the doctors present save those patients lives. I think this is a great opportunity for people to get better care from world renowned doctors which was not previously available especially to 3rd world countries.
These advances can greatly impact disease around the world. If patients in 3rd world countries have access to doctors in advanced countries they may be better able to be treated an cured before the disease spreads around the country or world. The WHO can also keep track of disease trends in order to keep the public warned and educated on how to prevent disease. I believe this will cut down on serious outbreaks of disease in the future.
("Technology and Health Care | Globalization101," n.d.)
third world countries can best be served by distance education but really any country can. In the US we use distance learning to make college more accessible to people and in 3rd world countries they can now be exposed to education from nations with better education systems. This enables people from all over the world to benefit from a global knowledge and will undoubtedly cause a great revival of learning and education especially among countries which have been education deprived for so long.. According to the Education article it is expected that self esteem will also see a great improvement which is vital to countries where poor conditions exist.
("Technology and Education | Globalization101," n.d.)
Extra Credit: In Kenya, there are many significant health issues, maternal health being just one of them. In a meeting regarding the severity of this, it is noted that health care provider education and monitoring needed to be updated. Technological devices are being implements as well as distance education which will help better train the providers so that they can both educate their patients and help with prenatal, post natal & neonatal care in a manner more befitting such a widely populated country like Kenya. In addition it is a tribute to technology as well, that this meeting was held simultaneously with people from the US as well as Kenya and webcast for everyone to participate in and learn from.
("Maternal Health Challenges in Kenya: What New Research Evidence Shows | Wilson Center," 2011)
References
Maternal Health Challenges in Kenya: What New Research Evidence Shows | Wilson Center. (2011, July 12). Retrieved from http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/maternal-health-challenges-kenya-what-new-research-evidence-shows
Technology and Education | Globalization101. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.globalization101.org/education/
Technology and Health Care | Globalization101. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.globalization101.org/health-care/
Technology | Globalization101. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.globalization101.org/category/issues-in-depth/technology/
