336 ■ III: ROLE FUNCTIONS OF DOCTORAL ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE
Technology Impact
Biometrics This technology will provide additional security to privacy
and confidentiality to health information. It will also offer
functionality for conducting audit trails.
Genetics and genomics Currently, this technology is providing valuable screening and
genetic predictive information; however, in the future genetics
and genomics will transform the health care system providing
preventative treatment to patients for conditions/ diseases they
are likely to develop, and also to provide designer medications/
treatments for individuals based on genetic markers.
Adapted from Carsten Stahl (2011), Huston (2013), Rabkin and Weberg (2015), and Govett (2015).
TABLE 14.5 Selected Web Resource List
Tool Web Address
Active Worlds Educational Universe http://www.activeworlds.com
Health Care Hashtag Project http://www.symplur.com
Hootsuite https://hootsuite.com/
Netvibes (Netvibes Incorporated) http://www.netvibes.com
Scrapplet (radWEBTECH) http://www.scrapplet.com/ index.html
Second Life (Linden Research Incorporated) https://secondlife.com
Twitter (Twitter Incorporated) https://twitter.com
Wonderland (LeadingVirtually.com) http://www.leadingvirtually.com
TABLE 14.4 Key Emerging Technologies With Predicted Impact on Health Care (continued )
Reference alerts are very helpful in providing the busy practitioner an automated
mechanism to receive notification of new publications related to a specific topic. After
completing a search in a bibliographic database, users can sign up for individual accounts
in order to save their searches, relevant citations, and receive current awareness alerts.
Users can determine the frequency of alerts along with specifying how they would pre-
fer to receive this type of information. Common formats include e- mail notifications and
really simple syndication (RSS) feeds. Listservs can also provide an excellent platform
for connecting with other professionals and staying up to date with trends.
Web 2.0 tools such as RSS feeds and Twitter provide yet another means to support
lifelong learning. RSS is a mechanism by which individuals or organizations can pub-
lish and distribute content, audio, or video to the world. RSS feeds eliminate the need
to constantly check to see if there is any new information available by “pushing” out
information when it becomes available.
Web 3.0 tools promise to bring the best of Web 2.0 to the next level with expanded
portability and mobility in addition to an improved, individualized search experience
resulting from enhanced natural language search capability. The “intelligent web” will
offer greater capability to provide just- in- time and just- enough information for decision
support. In addition, cloud- based technologies offering hosting and software as a ser-
vice (SAAS) further expand the capacity of a mobile environment and have the potential
to further expand health care beyond the traditional service settings.
Twitter offers another way to receive updated information using a hybrid instant mes-
senger transmitting 140 characters at a time to a select group. This technology can be useful