Calvin Wood

Professor Padgett
UWRT 1102
April 4, 2015
Silent Truths
We all know and are very aware that modern advancements in technology have enabled
the world to become a somewhat healthier place to live. At least this is what the average person
believes and trusts to be true. What I would like to know is: Does modern advancements in
technology correlate/contribute to poor health/lifestyles around the globe? This question
intrigues me because it allows me to look deeper into what is behind the scenes of some
technologies. After compiling some research on this topic, the results can be quite startling. With
this being said, I believe that certain technological advances in different fields (healthcare,
entertainment, environmental//agricultural, etc.) around the world have an unseen side of
negative consequences.
In a report by Joan S. Ash titled, Some Unintended Consequences of Information
Technology in Health Care, Ash and collegues discover that information technology can lead to
malfunctions with health and possibly death. Basically these errors were caused by PCISs or
patient care information systems. They reported that a system in a hospital had errors with
communicating and retrieving information that lead to an array of people that were either over
treated or under treated because of an error with technology. A further report showed that a
predicted 98,000 deaths in the U.S could occur from these errors alone (2 Ash.) This is
concerning to me because these deaths could have been prevented if the technology worked
properly. I think that in order to fix this problem this system in particular needs to be revised but

Im sure countless other systems will need to be revised as well. With this knowledge I think that
all hospitals should be trained to look for information that doesnt match up in order to avoid
error.
Errors in hospitals are actually more frequent than the average person would suspect. It
could be from the amount of people the hospital serves at one time, human error, misscommunication, etc. The fact of the matter is that these errors are very real and do occur
probably every day. An article from the British Journal of Anesthesia about surgical checklists
goes into detail about why checklists in hospitals can be very helpful and can avoid unwanted
error by surgeons. It was believed that by routinely checking common safety issues, and by
better team communication and dynamics, preoperative morbidity and mortality could be
improved. (Walker.) Basically this states that with checklists in hospitals that check certain
safety issues and by better teamwork on these issues that error can be substantially avoided. The
article goes on to state that An example of an effective use of a medical checklist is the
checklist developed in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine.(checklists in healthcare, Walker.) This is just one example of a successful checklist
that went over basic things like hand-washing. Although the idea of a checklist may seem very
simple, lots of experts dont use them which results in room for human error.
After analyzing some of the issues with healthcare technology in America there are also
some issues regarding media usage of teenagers in America. Research shows that children,
preteens, and teenagers are using massive amounts of media and those with more screen time
have been shown to have increased obesity, reduced physical activity, and decreased health.
(Rosen L.D.) This topic is very big in America at this point in time because I believe many
Americans have become lazier than past generations. I say this because now there is so many

ways to rationalize exercise and also there are so many fast food restaurants that are easily
accessible that a new pattern among teens is beginning to emerge. Also I believe that if this
pattern continues than America will have serious problems. This issue of media usage over
elongated amounts of time can lead to long term health effects regarding vision, migraines, etc.
In my personal experience I have found that exercise is critical to maintaining good health,
especially if youre a person that spends a lot of time on the computer. An article in the Journal
of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners by Weber, S. addressing the pros and cons
goes into some detail about the pros and cons of certain technologies. Continuing on negative
side effects of sitting in front of a computer for too long, these are some other conditions that can
occur: Increasing risk for obesity, repetitive strain injuries, stunted social development, and
clinical depression. I would say that many people around the world suffer from these conditions
but dont know that it could be from long hours spent at the computer.
Spending a lot of time in front of a computer screen obviously can be bad for your health.
In fact spending time in front of any screen can be bad for you health. An article by Punamaki, R.
L. and colleagues from the Journal of Adolescents suggest unhealthy habits that are being formed
by adolescents from video gaming. This article compares the extensive usage of videogames by
teen boys and the amount of sleep they get. They found that the more usage led to increased
tiredness the next day. However Girls were vulnerable to the negative consequences of intensive
mobile phone usage, as it associated with perceived health complaints and musculoskeletal
symptoms both directly and through deteriorated sleep and increased waking-time
tiredness.(2007.) Although video games do have a serve a certain amount of cognitive function,
the act of over-usage points to many problems. I think that parents need to definitely set a limit to
their childrens amount of television watched, video games played, computer usage, cell phone

usage, etc. Even though our world is beginning to revolve solely around technology it is
important to remember how things used to be done.
As our society develops in the future I think it is very important to take note of all of the
ways technology has backfired and try to prevent this from happening as much as we can. When
future generations develop something new they need to think about all of the possible outcomes
before releasing it world-wide, instead of waiting for problems to occur and then seeing what
they could have done in retrospect.

Works Cited
Joan S. Ash, M. B. (2004, March 1). Some Unintended Consequences of Information Technology
in Health Care: The Nature of Patient Care Information System-related Errors.

A. Walkeraes175 ( May 30, 2012)Surgical safety checklists, Br. J. Anaesth.

Rosen, L. D., Lim, A. F., Felt, J., Carrier, L. M., Cheever, N. A., Lara-Ruiz, J. M., Mendoza, J.
S., ... Rokkum, J. (June 01, 2014). Media and technology use predicts ill-being among
children, preteens and teenagers independent of the negative health impacts of exercise
and eating habits. Computers in Human Behavior, 35, 364-375.

Weber, S. (January 01, 2005). Addressing technology pros and cons. Journal of the American
Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 17, 11.)

Punamaki, R. L., Wallenius, M., Nygard, C.-H., Saarni, L., & Rimpela, A. (August 01, 2007).
Use of information and communication technology (ICT) and perceived health in
adolescence: The role of sleeping habits and waking-time tiredness. Journal of
Adolescence, 30, 4, 569-585.