TWC - Week 06

During TWC's lessons, i realized that it is the videos that left the most impression so i shall share another video which professor introduced this week by Microsoft.

Future medical technology from Microsoft


A statement the professor has mentioned today is that: Healthcare - waiting time = loss of economy
The creation of such medical technology will increase efficiency, decrease the waiting time that everyone hates, and bring in more economy value to the society.

Is this technology achievable within the next 10-20 years? Highly possible. The advancement of the current technologies that we have now are what people once considered was impossible. The future that Microsoft has envisioned was as my professor has shared in class, a mixture of existing technologies from all over the world combined. They just need a common platform to integrate together to create wonders.

There was a short debate in class. Will such advanced technologies make the healthcare industry more affordable or more expensive? Some says that it will be lower, because there is more efficiency and that by being one f the more advanced healthcare technology service provider, you would have already gain fame and popularity, thus gaining lots of business. There is not need to jack up the prices. However, some says that the price will be higher because it costs a lot of money to buy and integrate these systems together.

Then, the issue of price comes in. A fellow classmate presented on a topic talking about counterfeit drugs. In some country, people are willing to pay a smaller amount for counterfeit drugs thinking that the effects are all the same. Because the current medications provided are so expensive, these poor people who consume counterfeit drugs to save money faced the consequences of adverse side effects from counterfeit drugs. So various suggestions were made in class to solve this issue. One of the solutions mentioned was to sell the medications at very low prices so that counterfeit drugs will not earn much even if they tried to lower the selling price. This would discourage the poor people from buying counterfeit drugs.

However, there comes the question of whether people will still spend so much money on innovation if they are not paid well for it. One solution which was already in place was that governments will talk to the innovators and negotiate on an appropriate price so that it will benefit the country and its people. Part of the requisition of these technology will be absorbed by the government themselves so that both the citizens of the country as well as the innovators for the drugs will have a win win situation.

Before this lesson, i was very clueless about the medical industry world. Though i know that technology is vital in the healthcare industry, i have never envisioned the healthcare industry to also use such powerful technology. This set me to think that besides a business making money, IT solutions can practically be applied anywhere as long as you can find the root cause of the issues.