The Social Perspectives of Digitization of Health Care: The Medical Sociological Aspect

Abstract

In the Russian Federation, the technology platform «Medicine of the future» is specifically identified in the sector of digital economics. In the «Medicine and health care» sector, diagnostic systems based on molecular and cellular targets, genomic, post-genomic and cellular technologies are singled out. In the «Pharmaceutical industry" sector, the breakthrough areas include such innovative pharmaceuticals as vaccines (DNA vaccines), hormonal agents, coagulation factors, drugs based on cytokines, monoclonal antibodies, drugs for demographically significant diseases, antiseptics. In the sector of «Production of new materials» the priority targets is development of nano-technology and nano-materials and technologies of elaboration of bio-compatible materials. The main target is training and retraining of personnel in digital medicine skills, organization of national technological platforms for on-line education, on-line medicine and adjustment of existing and development of new educational programs. The social alterations resulting due to health care digitalization are associated with transformation of the structure of labor market of medical personnel, giving rise to emergence of new medical professions at the scientific research junction. The social perspectives of health care digitalization reflect formation of «knowledge society», development of information society and digital economics as a whole, development of competitive technologies and services in medicine. The world expert community, implementing sociological and socio-economic research, confirms that digitalization of medicine and economics gave rise to the ideology of «Social Investment» («Impact Investing», or, otherwise, «investment in social effect»). The digitalization of health care and economics has led to the need of developing new civilizational paradigm, to the necessity of human dimension of technological and economic processes. The positive social changes caused by development of digital medicine, do not exclude the emergence of social risks, manifested in possible violation of privacy, patients' rights, reducing level of security and dangerous dehumanization of society, reducing the value of patient as individual in conditions of development of biomedicine and genetic engineering as areas of digital medicine.