Emerging High-Tech High- Touch Hospital Innovations

What happens is that whenever a new technology is introduced into society, there must be a counterbalancing human response, that is, high touch, or the technology is rejected.  The more high tech, the more high touch.

John Naisbitt,  Megatrends, 1982

As hospital admissions relentlessly drop, hospitals are having a hard time counterbalancing high-tech high-touch. 

On the one hand, hospitals are often where high-tech innovations debut and  hospital executives find these innovations imminently marketable. 

On the other hand,  the public knows hospitals are dangerous place, and innovations often bring higher prices rather than lower costs, which tend to be  outside rather than inside hospitals.

Here, from a HealthLeaders  Media  March 22, 2013 article are 10 emerging  high-tech high-touch innovations to watch.  Each has its high tech benefits, and high touch hazards.

1.      Electronic health records

2.      Mobile health applications

3.      Alarm integration technologies

4.      Minimally invasive cardiac surgeries

5.      Imaging-guided surgeries

6.      PET/MRI scanning

7.      Bariatric surgery

8.      Supply chain: MRI-Compatible Pacemakers

9.      Radiation-does safety systems

10.  Lung cancer screening

Tweet:  High-tech high-touch hospital  innovations  involve new surgical techniques, MRI apps, and mobile apps, e-records, and e-alarm systems.