Robotic Heart Surgery and its Benefits Research Paper

Robotic Heart Surgery and its Benefits - Research Paper Example After all, the perceived increase in financial burdens a more universal health care bill would place on the public – higher taxes, higher costs for businesses, higher co-pay fees, etc. – was the main argument used by the strongest opponents of the bill (Hossain and Quealy, 2010). Implementing change, especially in health care, is always difficult to accomplish for several reasons. As Underdahl (2009) argued in a study, even a seemingly simple procedure as getting a signed informed consent form from a patient can be a tough challenge even in a health care system where the major players are educated and informed professionals. When the change is a new technology, the resistance to change and the difficulty in adapting becomes an even greater challenge, especially when surgeons are involved (Geer, 2000). This is the case with Robotic Heart Surgery or RHS, a new technology that has received mixed reactions from all sectors of the health care field. The purpose of this paper is to show that RHS, one of the â€Å"relatively recent† variations of Minimally-Invasive Cardiac Surgery or MICS, is a beneficial and viable alternative that can help meet the goal of the Health Care Reform Act of 2010: better and affordable health care for more Americans. This paper will show that RHS is better, safer and more acceptable to patients and a new breed of heart surgeons. In addition, despite its high initial costs, RHS can be more economical in the long run and make heart surgery affordable to more patients. These developments would also have an impact on the work of health care professionals. In view of the benefits of RHS, and despite initial opposition of many to the new technology, its wider acceptance must be promoted and steps must be taken to prepare health care practitioners for the potential increase in the number of people availing of the procedure.