TITLE:
Healthcare Technology: A Domain of Inequality
AUTHORS:
Suman Hazarika, Akhil Ranjan Dutta
KEYWORDS:
Antibiotics; Socioeconomic Status—SES; Prosthesis; Jaipur Foot; Heart Valve
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Applied Sociology,
Vol.3 No.2,
May
29,
2013
ABSTRACT: The prevailing perception that technological development facilitates universal empowerment and transcends the social domains of discriminations is now challenged by comprehensive studies. Technology itself is a domain of inequality and it accentuates more inequality with technology gradually favoring the privileged sections and the societies. The healthcare technology, which otherwise could have brought miracle achievements in attaining universal health standards, however, has failed to do so due to the inherent inequality in access to healthcare technology. The growing dominance of monopoly houses on healthcare technology and marginalization of indigenous health technology makes access to technology with a new domain of inequality. With comprehensive empirical data, the present paper investigates into this domain of inequality and argues that a move towards global well being demands a radical restructuring of the global domain of healthcare technology.