The future of technology and the effect it may have on replacing human jobs

Technol Health Care. 2010;18(4-5):353-8. doi: 10.3233/THC-2010-0592.

Abstract

Healthcare is one of the largest and fast growing industries in the U.S. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that it provided 14.3 million jobs for wage and salary workers in 2008 and it is estimated that 3.2 million new wage and salary jobs will be generated between 2008 and 2018 [3]. Unfortunately, that is only an estimate. Advancements and emerging technologies are more prevalent these days which could affect the amount of jobs that exist. One such technology is TeleHealth. I will look at the future of technology and the affect it might have by replacing human jobs with machines; will technology create additional jobs, or take jobs away. My objective is to explore the area of TeleHealth in depth through published research articles to support my theory, if technology expands and become more advanced then it will eventually replace humans in their jobs in the health care industry as well as create new jobs in different areas of the field.

MeSH terms

  • Health Personnel*
  • Humans
  • Monitoring, Ambulatory / methods
  • Remote Consultation / methods
  • Surgery, Computer-Assisted / methods
  • Telemedicine / methods*
  • United States
  • Workforce