ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the personnel still tend to think of themselves as treating patients who are acutely ill in the hospitals. This can only mean, however, that their clients are suffering from an acute phase of one or another chronic disease. The diagnosis and treatment of the chronic illnesses have contributed to the widespread use of a great array of drugs, rapidly increasing numbers and types of machinery, and, of course, various surgical and other procedures. In the United States, as in other industrialized nations, a considerable industry has evolved for manufacturing and supplying drugs, machines, and other elements of these technologies. Medical technology has prolonged lives, but it has also made both the professionals and the patients more dependent on technology throughout the course of long chronic illnesses. A special feature of medical specialization and technological innovation is that the two are simultaneously parallel and interactive, creating an impetus to further technological innovation and specialization.
