ABSTRACT
This chapter offers many opportunities to improve health and well-being. It represents the opportunities of technology by going more into depth with four examples: cognitive computing, embodied conversation agents, virtual and augmented reality, and wearable technology for self-tracking. In many sensitive healthcare areas, the anonymity that technology can offer may be one of the largest opportunities. Healthcare and technology always have had a complicated relationship: on the one hand, technology has the possibility to make healthcare more effective and efficient. On the other hand, technologies and innovation in general, have been notoriously slow to disseminate in healthcare. Characteristics of technology as persistence and being able to deal with large amounts of data can make technology an effective persuader. Humans can process a lot of data, but when it comes to managing huge volumes of data, technology has a clear advantage. The chapter focuses on eHealth technologies, which is mainly Information and Communication Technology.
