By Kelley Sullivan, Health IT Blogger, DICOM Grid
Twitter: @DICOMGrid
The Facebook generation, the glued to their phone generation, the “ME ME ME” generation – the millennials.
Millennials have certainly received their fair share of criticism – just check out 2014’s Time article for an example! Last week we discussed how healthcare will adapt for aging baby boomers. Equally as important is considering how healthcare will be affected as millennials continue to enter and take over the workforce. Millennials may be the answer to the acceptance of interoperability and entirely integrating the healthcare system.
Millennial practitioners and patients alike are more apt to utilize technology and data. An NPR study showed that about half of Americans are apprehensive about sharing their healthcare data. However, 61% of Millennials are willing to share their personal health information indicating that they are more comfortable allowing access to their health data for research purposes than older generations.
Millennials within the medical field are also more likely to adopt the use of technology in their practice. According to digital health philosopher John Nosta, “The role of the smartphone or handheld device to aid in a differential diagnosis or a clinical scenario may become much more mainstream as we see this generation of medical students graduate.” Because millennials have grown up using technology their whole lives, these digital natives will look to technology to improve their efficiency and quality of care.
Robert Graboyes, a healthcare researcher at George Mason University, points out the dichotomy between healthcare and technological development in a recent paper. He argues that healthcare has been locked in a ‘fortress’ of apprehension of what could go wrong in providing care while technological developments have been able to flourish on the ‘frontier’ which focuses solely on innovation.
There is already a lot of convergence between healthcare and technology, especially in recent initiatives. Further acceptance of technology developments will allow for our healthcare system to reach its potential – with accessibility and quality of care at the forefront. Millennials are already accepting of technology, and advocate for its use, so this may be the generation to allow healthcare and technology to unite and develop on the ‘frontier,’ changing the healthcare system for the better.
How will millennials in the workforce impact healthcare and the utilization of technology?
About the Author: Kelley Sullivan currently resides in the Boston area and is a health IT blogger at DICOM Grid. She covers trend pieces spanning medical imaging, wearables, security, and interoperability. This article was originally published on DICOM Grid and is republished here with permission.