The role of technology in medical decision-making and judgment

Investments in health care technology have a big potential to bring both tangible and intangible positive returns. Wide adoption of health care technology can significantly reduce the rate of medical errors. Health care technology investments are often justified and evaluated based on its' clinical effectiveness and financial cost-benefit analysis. However, the success of health care technology is partially determined by the adoption, use, diffusion and smart utilization by different stakeholders. Thus, there is a concurrent need to tackle the problem of evaluating the use and attitudes towards health care technology while balancing financial costs and benefits of medical technology as well as its' clinical effectiveness. Health care technology can be classified into two major categories: medical technology and health information technology (HIT). While the focus of medical technology is the detection and treatment of disease, the HIT is mostly concerned with management of health care delivery logistics, and analysis and administration of health care financial and clinical operations. There are different factors that either promote or hinder the growth, adoption and diffusion of health care technology. This paper provides a literature review of recent studies that focus on the impact of information and communication technologies on public health in general and the impact of medical technologies on early detection, diagnosis and treatment of many diseases in particular. The following paper also attempts to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of relatively novice medical technology - digital mammography, from the physicians' decision making perspectives. The following research questions are emphasized: Are radiologists using different thresholds and cues with full-film digital mammography compared to screen-film mammography? Is digital mammography assisting to improve the accuracy of radiologists' judgments? How much more or less information do radiologists obtain with digital mammography images compared to information provided by full-film mammography images. Do radiologists rely on and trust digital mammography systems and the integrated computer-aided detection systems for interpreting mammography images and making decisions? Finally, this paper attempts to compare and contrast the features and characteristics provided by digital versus film mammography from multiple stakeholder perspectives.