ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

How Innovation and Proliferation of Technologies have intensified surveillance of the Body for Health and Medical Purposes

How Innovation and Proliferation of Technologies have intensified surveillance of the Body for Health and Medical Purposes

Introduction

The surveillance of body for different health and medical purposes is an emerging concept all over the world and has been debated on several medical forums. The word surveillance is taken from French language which refers to meaning of careful inspection or watch over. The surveillance when applied to medical and health purposes would take the concept of close monitoring and evaluation of different health conditions that occur and re-occur among the population. The medical surveillance is defined as continuous and close watchfulness of diseases through systematic process of collection, evaluation, consolidation of motility and morbidity reports and other information similar to these by directly disseminating information to public and patients who are suffering from particular diseases or those who need to know (Bhuptani & Moradpour, 2005).

The complex healthcare needs and diversified patients have increased the demand of clinicians to adopt sophisticated means in their work practices. In the last 50 years, the role of emerging technologies and innovations has completely changed the medical practices of doctor and clinicians around the world the diagnose treatment and provide effective healthcare to patients. Surveillance in medical profession has evolved as dominant organising practice by doctors and clinicians not only in western countries but has also promoted widespread changed across continents and social domains. The surveillance has taken different forms with emerging medical practices and involved contexts of diverse motivations, organizational arrangements, technologies, legal regimes and dynamics based on particular and unique social and political needs (Ball, 2005).

Overview

Gone are the days when Surveillance for medical and health purposes was used to relate with old practices by doctors and clinicians where there is little or no use of technology. Today Surveillance can only be linked, thought and talked in technological terms. The technologies and innovations are linked with medical surveillance; however, two things need to be considered in order to make that association. The first kind is of human surveillance that is unmediated from technologies is still occurring however still linked with more technology-related cure. Secondly, technological systems by themselves cannot be said to be only cause or addition or sum up of what is called today medical surveillance. Many of the technologies claiming to have surveillance consequences capacities are still lacking in 100% inspection or surveillance of many diseases around the world (Bennett & Regan, 2004).

There are wide examples of institutes who are adopting surveillance technologies in organizational practices in medical and healthcare settings. These technologies are said to be intensifying surveillance of human body for medical and health purposes. One such technology that is widely discussed in various medical forums is emergence of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). The RFID technology is a wireless identification emerging innovation that can be linked with objects for enhancement of their surveillance with limited computational capacities such as human bodies for medical ...