Technology tends to apply in most sectors including the public health. Therefore, it becomes important to analyze its impact on the medical spectrum. It is worth noting that technology keeps on changing and hence causing various changes in areas such as leadership, communication, storage of documents, treatment procedures, and much more. Also, through various technology advancements, technology simplifies the delivery of treatment and makes it possible to measure various variables in public health, discover new forms of treatment and also discover risks earlier such that they are mitigated before causing fervent damages (Umble et.al, 2011). By analyzing the viewpoints of various scholars, it becomes easier to understand the role of technology in the medical field.
The public health sector is in dire need of a new brand of leaders who are willing to embrace the use of technology to foster change (Yphantides, Escoboza & Macchione, 2015). The call for a restructure of leadership styles and acquiring of new highly competent leaders is a common topic around medical councils. The main cause of inadequate leadership is the slow nature of adapting to the technological evolutions by the current leadership in public health. There is a need for adoption of new competencies that are highly essential for the growth of the community health center and public health in general. From a global perspective, the incorporation of technology in various section of public health is essential due to the efficiency provided by technology. The health sector has cropped up to be a critical area; it is a widely recognized discipline in the community. There is need to acknowledge the importance of management in the medical environment and the role of technology in improving its efficiency. One fact is that leaders in the public health industry are not well versed with the tenets of technology, they dont see the importance of including technology in their systems of administration. Also, with the frequent developments of new forms of technology, it is important for the medical practitioners to take part in training sessions that illustrate how various technologies are applied in the medical field (Yphantides, Escoboza & Macchione, 2015).
A simple analysis of San Diegos health environment indicates that there is adequate management or rather effective leaders in its medical sector. The leaders have undergone courses in clinical and leadership, but lack training in technology (Yphantides, Escoboza, and Macchione, 2015). It is imperative to understand that living in the 21st century, the inclusion of technology to everyday life is a necessity. Also, technology is here to stay and hence inevitable to experience it. On the other hand, the inclusion and the adoption rates of technology into the public health have always been slow, and this can be attributed to the lack of technological knowledge by most of the leaders. Furthermore, most people tend to depend on what they already know and not considering the possible alternatives such that it becomes a challenge to adapt to new forms if the technology that might be efficient. In other words, the lack of initiative by leadership in the medical field creates a gap in technological adoption. Leadership and technology in the public sector is one topic that needs to be enunciated and redeveloped. In essence, there is a need to change the attitudes, influence and the knowledge of leaders in the public sectors in order to reduce the gap between leadership and technology (Smith et.al, 2015).
Koh and Jacobson in their article Fostering Public Health Leadership clearly state that issues facing leadership in the public health sector emanate from multiple sources (Koh & Jacobson, 2009). Leaders are usually influenced by the decision of the stakeholders. The stakeholders belief is that the adoption of technology will not change the operations within the facility. In other words, the knowledge gap between stakeholders and technology is one of the major reasons for slowed adoption of technology and key leadership in the public health sectors (Koh and Jacobson, 2009). The health sector has myriad of challenges that make it difficult to analyze a problem in addition to finding its solution. In essence, technological improvements are required in the public health sectors. Also, a major challenge lies in the proposition of the idea, board acceptance and later on adoption that makes it difficult for technology to be incorporated in the medical industry (Koh & Jacobson 2009).
The Journal of Healthcare Leadership talks of the need for a change of leadership techniques in the public health (Press, 2016). The delivery of healthcare to members of the public needs restructuring, whereby there is a need for adoption of newer techniques that should improve the sectors. The author suggests the incorporation of technology adoption and research as a new ticket to the improvement of public health service provision. There is a need to take up dynamic leadership techniques is critical whereby the author states that technology offers efficiency in personnel management, payrolls, in-patient and out-patient documentation, pharmaceutical procurement and other important sectors of public health (Press, 2016). All the benefits stated can be achieved through the adoption of technology as an additive to leadership tool. The adoption of technology would make the work of leadership much easier. Therefore, it is important to understand that technology offers much more than the leaders in the industry want to acknowledge (Press, 2016).
Public health challenges are usually aggravated by the lack of proper leadership within the organizational heads. The challenges of endemics and epidemics can be well managed with a new set of leadership with multi-disciplinary skills; this gives one a chance to be of help in different areas. In any case, leadership requires individuals with the overall understanding of operations, technology, medical knowledge, procurements and Public Relations (Smith et.al, 2015). There is a need for current leaders to learn more about the benefits that can be accrued from the incorporation of technology in their leadership routines. It is of critical importance that leaders should not all come from a single background, there is a need to develop a multi-disciplinary board of members, in this way technology adoption and implementation into leadership will be made possible (Kellar, 2016).
In many formal and informal public health leadership discussions, there is always a slack of the mention of application of technology. The fear of adopting new things, (technology that they cannot be understood) clearly puts off the adoption of technology in many public health organizations (McManus, 2016). There is a need to create a familiarization of technological merits to key leaders in the public health and the negation of technological talks in key public health summits contributes to the slow adoption of technology in many key public health systems. The leaders view it as a topic for other organizations to handle; there is a need for a multidisciplinary approach to public health leadership training (McManus, 2016).
It is worth noting that public health leadership is a critical function the management of the operations of activities within the public health sector. The flexibility and knowledgeability of leaders in the public health when it comes to multi-disciplinary learning has a great effect on their performance as leaders (Sonnino, 2016). It is important to acknowledge that public health management requires the adoption of technology as a value-added tool to the conduction of operations within public health environments. The adoption of technology stands to offer personnel management systems, patient management, recordkeeping, pharmaceutical management and other activities such as outreach programs to the public. All these activities can be managed easily by leaders through the inclusion of technology in the involved operations (Sonnino, 2016).
In many cases, the adoption and incorporation of technology as part of a public health leadership technique has faced multiple challenges (Trastek et.al, 2014). A big knowledge gap exists between leaders in public health and the onward technological advances. Rapid changes in technology keep many leaders in public health a bit far behind in terms of knowledge gain and even adoption of the said technologies. This inability to cope with the fast-moving nature of technology decrements their levels of efficiency in the conduction of their tasks as leaders (Trastek et.al, 2014).
According to Piot (2014), there is need to develop a new set of leaders with multi-disciplinary knowledge in the public health sector. These set of individuals will help spearhead the adoption of technology in the public health leadership. It is of critical importance that current leaders in the hospitality industry understand the benefits accrued from the adoption of the technological idea. The proper course of events requires the use of public lectures to leaders in public health management in addition to practical training. The technique would help in passing knowledge on the importance of technological tools and their benefits to leaders in the public health spectrum (Piot, 2014).
As stated earlier, by analyzing the viewpoints of various scholars, it becomes easier to understand the role of technology in the medical field. Technology plays a significant role in the management of systems in public health. It is, therefore, important for administrators to be alert for any changes in technology that may influence the operations in the medical field.
References
Kellar, E. (2016). Public Health and the Leadership Imperative. Governing.com. Retrieved 31 December 2016, from http://www.governing.com/columns/smart-mgmt/col-government-public-health-leadership-challenges.html
Koh, H. K. and Jacobson, M. (2009). "Fostering Public Health Leadership". Journal of Public Health 31 (2), 199-201. Web. 31 Dec. 2016.
McManus, J. (2016). Leadershipits not all transformational in public health. The Commonplace Book. Retrieved 31 December 2016, from https://jimmcmanus.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/leadership-its-not-all-transformational-in-public-health/Piot, P. (2012). Innovation and technology for global public health. Global Public Health, 7(sup1), S46-S53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2012.698294
Press, D. (2016). Journal of Healthcare Leadership - Dove Press Open Access Publisher. Dovepress.com. Retrieved 31 December 2016, from https://www.dovepress.com/journal-of-healthcare-leadership-journalSmith, T., Stankunas, M., Czabanowska, K., de Jong, N., O'Connor, S., & Fowler Davis, S. (2015). Principles of all-inclusive public health: developing a public health leadership curriculum. Public Health, 129(2), 182-184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2014.12.001Sonnino, R. (2016). Health care leadership development and training: progress and pitfalls. Journal Of Healthcare Leadership, 19. http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/jhl.s68068
Trastek, V., Hamilton, N., & Niles, E. (2014). Leadership Models in Health CareA Case for Servant Leadership. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 89(3), 374-381. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2013.10.012Umble, K., Baker, E., Diehl, S., Haws, S., Steffen, D., Frederick, S., & Woltring, C. (2011). An Evaluation of the National Public Health Leadership Institute1991-2006. Journal Of Public Health Management And Practice, 17(3), 214-224. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/phh.0b013e31820759d0
Yphantides, N., Escoboza, S. and Macchione, N. (2015) "Leadership In Public Health: New Competencies For The Future". Frontiers in Public Health: n. pag. Web.
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