No one can deny the fact that technological advances in medicine affect society significantly. For example, they provide patients with better service, while medical personnel members face new job opportunities. However, such achievements result in a controversial attitude toward medical experts. Some people believe that technology provides these experts with additional advantages, while others think that these advancements can replace the medical professionals. Thus, the primary purpose of this paper is to explain the reasoning behind these opposite points of view.
On the one hand, Warner and Tighe (2001) explain how technological advances contribute to better medical service. The scholars consider X-rays that removed “a source of error common to all methods that depend on the senses of the individual for the accuracy of their results” (Warner and Tighe, 2001, p. 351). As a result, this example demonstrates how technological advances can strengthen the reliance on medical experts. On the other hand, the pregnancy test depicts the resistance to this trend. The Office of NIH History (n.d.) states that such tests allow women to know whether they are pregnant without consulting a doctor. This technological achievement was not possible a few decades ago. Now, however, women do not need to rely on medical experts to know an answer to this question.
In conclusion, it has been shown that technological advances have an uncertain meaning. While some of them support the activity of medical experts, others are said to act as substitutes. Thus, when it comes, for example, to X-ray procedures, patients tend to rely on health care professionals significantly. However, when individuals have an opportunity to find an answer by themselves, as with a pregnancy test, they tend to avoid consulting experts.
References
Office of NIH History. (n.d.). A thin blue line: The history of the pregnancy test kit. Web.
Warner, J. H., & Tighe, J. A. (2001). Major problems in the history of American medicine and public health: documents and essays. Houghton Mifflin.