The article you provided is a systematic review titled “Efficacy and pitfalls of digital technologies in healthcare services: A systematic review of two decades”. It was published on September 16, 2022, in Frontiers in Public Health, a section of the journal Digital Public Health. The authors are Nadeem Akhtar, Nohman Khan, Shazia Qayyum, Muhammad Imran Qureshi (corresponding author), and Snail S. Hishan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
This comprehensive review explores the significant role, efficacy, and challenges of technological developments in the healthcare sector over two decades.
Background and Purpose of the Study Technology has become an integral part of healthcare, profoundly transforming medical practices and significantly improving emergency management systems. Cutting-edge digital technologies have enhanced the effectiveness of surgeries and contributed to maintaining patients’ quality of life, even for individuals with severe medical complexities. The study acknowledges the revolutionary impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain on healthcare, noting that their applications extend beyond expected boundaries. Given this backdrop, the study’s crucial aim is to explore the role and challenges of these technologies in healthcare services and to deduce their pros and cons. It also seeks to understand which digital technologies are effective and how they have shaped the future landscape of digital healthcare, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary efforts for effective penetration.
Methodology The researchers conducted a systematic review of published studies from two major databases: Web of Science and Scopus. They utilized the PRISMA 2015 guidelines for screening records. The initial search, using keywords such as “digital technologies” AND “healthcare,” “artificial intelligence” AND “healthcare,” “IoT” AND “healthcare,” and “Blockchain” AND “healthcare,” yielded 1,650 records. After an initial screening using inclusion criteria (English language, related to digital technologies in healthcare) and exclusion criteria (review papers, conference papers), 323 studies were selected for the first stage of analysis, which involved keyword clouding and keyword occurrence analysis. A more careful screening for each identified classification led to the final selection of 55 articles for the systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis. The study employed keyword clouding and co-occurrence techniques using VOSViewer software to identify the most frequent keywords and subsequently derive four major literature classifications.
Key Classifications and Findings The study identifies and discusses four significant classifications of technological development in healthcare:
- Application of Digital Technologies in Healthcare
- Efficacy: Digital technologies have significantly influenced healthcare services, marking the beginning of the electronic health record (EHR) era. They provide opportunities for uninterrupted services, benefiting monitoring, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. Digital devices and applications aid healthcare professionals in monitoring patients’ real-time health status, even remotely, and significantly increase recovery rates. They also enhance self-care, reducing pressure on traditional medical services. Examples include digital alarms for older people and smart textiles for continuous monitoring in hospitals and homes.
- Pitfalls: Despite their effectiveness, severe concerns regarding trust, security, privacy, and accuracy have been reported. There are significant infrastructural and adaptation expenditures. Complications with applications can make digital devices insignificant for older people. Monitoring distant patients poses a challenge due to practitioners’ skills and abilities, highlighting a barrier related to technology-driving skills. Additionally, while easier for developed countries, there are barriers to transforming technologies in low-income countries.
- Application of Blockchain Technologies in Healthcare
- Efficacy: Blockchain is being introduced to overcome security and privacy challenges related to digital health records, considerably improving these issues. It is seen as a decentralized solution for securely storing and transmitting data, including critical patient health information. Blockchain technology improves security for insurance claims and data used by research organizations. Proposed models enhance security in data transfer, addressing concerns raised by researchers regarding EHRs.
- Pitfalls: Despite its promise, blockchain technology is still in its infancy with minimal applications. Researchers have raised concerns over data transfer security. Significant challenges exist for blockchain adoption in healthcare, including technical challenges like processing speed and massive data duplication. Cyber-attack risks remain a concern for IoT devices, though blockchain aims to counter this.
- Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
- Efficacy: AI and robotic surgery allow practitioners to provide personalized therapy, decrease repetitive tasks, and prevent serious illnesses. AI applications are revolutionizing healthcare by evaluating and distinguishing different effects, such as calculating ICU death rates using unstructured clinical data. Many healthcare companies are already using AI for predictive algorithms and precision medicine, helping predict patient risks, diagnose, and prescribe drugs.
- Pitfalls: AI applications present complex legal issues regarding the obligations of healthcare professionals and technology developers, especially if they cannot define AI-generated suggestions. Physicians need to learn how to work effectively with AI systems and understand AI techniques to confide in algorithm calculations. There are also concerns about ethical considerations related to AI usage in healthcare and the changing role of the physician-patient association in an algorithm-enabled environment.
- Application of Internet of Things (IoT) in Healthcare
- Efficacy: IoT represents the evolution of wireless communication, digital electronic devices, and microelectronic mechanical systems, with components like smartphones, wearables, and Wi-Fi devices. IoT is used to interconnect resources, provide efficient and reliable intelligent medical care services to aged people, and improve their lifestyle. It also helps in monitoring, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.
- Pitfalls: Health-related data processing is vital but carries critical issues like security and authentication for IoT devices. IoT devices are often more at risk of cyber-attacks due to their nature, limited knowledge of users, skills, and system limitations. Managing massive quantities of data, such as reports and pictures, indicates improving individual attempts and security threats.
Conclusion The study concludes that technological development provides tools to enhance patient care models, boost management services, improve accessibility, and ensure accuracy in all health areas. Digital technologies are transforming traditional medical care, with telemedicing, mobile health, AI, and IoT replacing conventional mediums. While digital technologies offer benefits like easier management of minor health issues and significant contributions to older adults’ health, challenges related to skills, security, and privacy remain. The review suggests that blockchain technologies offer a more secure option for managing patient data, and the growing adoption of AI and IoT devices will continue to make healthcare processes easier and improve service quality in the future. The authors foresee robotic surgeries and machine learning algorithms potentially replacing practitioners as future technologies.
References
Akhtar, N., Khan, N., Qayyum, S., Qureshi, M. I., & Hishan, S. S. (2022). Efficacy and pitfalls of digital technologies in healthcare services: A systematic review of two decades. Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 869793. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.869793
