IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019 - 18

and academic settings. The num-
ber of peer-reviewed articles on key
technologies has increased about
949% over the past 19 years, when
analyzed all together (p = 0.0007).
Interestingly, there was an exponen-
tial increase in technologies such
as Blockchain (161 600%), Deep
learning (28 065%), and Internet of
Things (25 787%) (Figure 1).
This entire advance in technolo-
gy, which consequently brings along
a significant increase in productiv-
ity, is directly affecting the number
and nature of jobs. There are diver-
gences between the predictions of
the impacts that the emergence of
these new technologies will have
on employment. Predictions range
from a 9% [3] to 47% [4] reduction
in current jobs due to automation.
However, in contrast to these
forecasts, employment in the health
sector has increased in recent years,
reaching record levels in 2017 in the
United States [5]. This increase in
employment in health-related fields
reinforces the idea that we cannot

accurately predict the impacts that
technological innovations will have
on our lives.
Healthcare is one of the sectors
with the highest expectations for
positive impacts of the 4.0 revolu-
tion. For decades, the world popu-
lation has grown exponentially,
a fact that has been associated
with advances in medicine, better
health in aging populations, and
longer life expectancies. However,
this trend has also posed demands
on healthcare systems, which must
deal with the challenge of provid-
ing care without raising costs, given
the fiscal constraints of the govern-
ments that provide such services to
the population.

by risks related to the economy
(with population growth and the
need for reforms), and society (with
the reconstruction of communities).
The 2017 study points out that
Industry 4.0, despite innumerable
benefits, can generate new prob-
lems and exacerbate existing risks.
In addition, when the issue at hand
is connectivity, and therefore the
exchange and sharing of informa-
tion, security is the biggest con-
cern. This was consolidated in
the survey of the following year.
The 2018 World Economic Forum
report points to Cyberattacks and
fraud/data theft as two of the top
five risks [7].
In this sense, ensuring the emer-
gence of Health 4.0 will depend
on how norms and standards will
be defined. Currently, as technol-
ogy develops very rapidly, regula-
tion does not follow the same pace.
Some regulated sectors are ham-
pered by the slowness of getting
authorization to test technologies,
which often only comes when they

Challenges for
Connected Health
In the annual risk survey of the
World Economic Forum of 2017 [6],
the management of technological
disruption is identified as the third
biggest challenge in the world for
the next few years, exceeded only

160,000

120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000

20
0
20 0
0
20 1
0
20 2
0
20 3
0
20 4
0
20 5
0
20 6
0
20 7
0
20 8
0
20 9
1
20 0
1
20 1
1
20 2
1
20 3
1
20 4
1
20 5
1
20 6
1
20 7
18

0

Number of Publications

140,000

3D Printers/Additive Manufacturing (22,288%)
Artificial Intelligence (386%)
Augmented Reality (1,071%)
Autonomous Robots (447%)
Autonomous Vehicles (898%)
Big Data (4,548%)
Blockchain (161,600%)
Cloud Computing (3,882%)
Cognitive Systems (826%)
Collaborative Robots (1,235%)
Data Mining (783%)
Deep Learning (28,065%)
IoT (Internet of Things) (25,787%)
Machine Learning (2,302%)
Mixed Reality (1,604%)

Year of Publication

FIGURE 1. Scientific publications over the last 19 years (2000-2018) related to technologies that integrate the Fourth Industrial
Revolution. The increase in the number of publications of each technology in the period is shown in the graph between parenthesis. The
data were obtained from bibliographical searches in Engineering Village from 2000 to 2018 using general descriptors corresponding
to each technology. Different technologies may have been combined in the same publication (e.g. in Big Data produced by Internet of
Things); however, for the sake of global tendency, they were counted separately. The data were analyzed using paired t tests (α = 0.05).

18

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SEPTEMBER 2019
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019

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