Adoption of Medical Technology in Public Healthcare Sector: An Evidence from Developing Country

Abstract

In Pakistan, the public health system has seen major changes over the past 50 years regarding social and economic aspects. Since the 1990s, the provincial governments had made their different health care reforms which were undertaken to increase equity, geographic coverage, and effectiveness. However, in the past, positive results were achieved, yet by using strong and long-lasting public health strategies quality service can be attained in developing countries. Accordingly, the integration of new devices for monitoring alerting, and asking patients about their physical health, is a promising option to improve the Pakistani healthcare system through upgrading patients remotely so they don’t need to go to a hospital, avoid overcrowding healthcare facilities, provide real-time surveillance, rapid patient attention, lower investments, operational cost, guaranteed level of safety, and expansion of existing areas. What makes people resist healthcare wearable technology? This article investigated whether there were acceptance or adoption barriers. Results revealed that medical wearables are commonly promoted and developed in the developed world rather than developing countries. The current situation for which governments of developing countries like Pakistan lose interested in adopting due to poor technical support, high prices, and lesser distribution channels. The four key barriers to wearable technology adoption were identified as, (i) Critical data management, security, and privacy issues, (ii) Unreliable results, (iii) Technology for low-income individuals, and, (iv) lack of clear regulations. While major challenges found were access to health services, inequalities in health care, training, and distribution of human resources in health care, and financial strategies for health care systems. It can be concluded that smart wearables with smart capabilities are a key component of the solution to ensure high-quality healthcare service should be considered. Specifically in remote areas of developing countries that are not currently covered and where the majority of the population lives.