ABSTRACT
As in so many fields, technology is an accelerator of new development and innovation. Two areas in medical care, that is, advances in medical science and deployment of information technology (IT), consume huge investments and require time and process change. This chapter introduces both these technologies. The science of medicine is comprised of a wide array of procedures, tools, devices, and interventions that are used to diagnose and treat medical conditions. The chapter focuses on pharmaceuticals, research, genomics, and medical devices. The federal government made the funding commitment to health IT in the HITECH Act of 2009. This legislation mandated the implementation of health data standards to be used by hospitals, physicians, and other providers of healthcare and for required reporting to be done electronically. HITECH provided financial incentives to providers to acquire and adopt electronic health records. In the following decade, the rate of adoption of electronic health records dramatically accelerated in the United States among hospitals and doctors.
