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Health, Technological Change and Societies

Health, as defined by the World Health Organization, is “the state of total physical, mental and emotional well-being and not just the absence of sickness and disease.” A variety of other definitions have also been used over the years for various reasons. But the goal of health is to maintain or improve health, enhance the quality of life, reduce health risks, and protect the health of future generations. It is important for everyone to become aware of their health status at a very early age.

health

The advancement in technology has dramatically changed the definition of “well-being.” While the advent of the technological revolution brought about much progress in medicine, there has also been a significant increase in the scope of what is not covered by medicine, in terms of knowledge landscapes. Knowledge landscapes encompass the processes that people engage in everyday life. In the digital society, people can perform many of these activities via the Internet. These activities are called leisure activities. The extent of the improvement in knowledge landscape also depends on the extent of the availability of technological infrastructure and the pace with which information is produced and shared.

Technological change and the globalization of markets have also triggered major changes in the definition of health. The extent of those changes can be seen in the extent of the technological innovations in the fields of diagnostics, prevention, and treatments for many kinds of diseases. These innovations have created a new framework for understanding health and its determinants. The modernization of public health has made it possible to focus on specific diseases at the individual level. These diseases include obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, and others.