This week you will be reading about the use of technology in the healthcare environment. While technology permeates every industry, its impact on healthcare has been enormous over the couple of past decades and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Not only can technology improve care at the individual patient and facility level, it has also assisted in our ability to track and predict disease, outbreaks, etc. on a global level allowing us to better manage population health.

Interestingly, technology in other industries tends to bring costs down. For example, microwave ovens cost in excess of $1,000 when they were first developed. Now you can buy them for a 1/10 of that cost. The same holds true for cell phones and multiple other products. However, technology in healthcare tends to drive the costs higher and higher as new technologies are introduced.