Technology and Medicine Technology has had a great impact on society when it comes to medicine. Medical technology has been around since cavemen began using rocks as tools to perform trepanation. Since then there have been many new advances in medicine thanks to technology. From painless needles to robots used for surgeries, the technology is here to stay. Painless needles are one way technology is improving society. Needles always scare small children and even adults. Now with the new painless needle, pediatricians can administer vaccinations painlessly. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology call these new needles micro needles. [1] They are made of silicon, metal, glass or biodegradable polymer. These needles are 500 times smaller than regular hypodermic needles, which are too small to irritate nerve endings. These new needles will consist of 400 embedded micro needles that will be glued onto a patch that will gently pierce the skin. Now with this new technology the company can have painless injections. Technology in terms of medicine has also increased the life expectancy of the average person. With new technological advances in surgeries, medicines and treatments, the average life expectancy is still increasing. A recent study shows that the average lifespan for 2004 for a United States citizen is 77.4 years. This has increased significantly since 1900, when the average lifespan for a male was 48.2 years and for a female was 51.5. Thanks to technology we can now live longer. Technology has also helped medicine with the use of robots. At Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, Jeff Lannigan oversees 1,300 prescriptions a day. [2] This is a huge amount of prescriptions. Now he has a new kind of help. Spencer is a million-dollar robot that dispenses prescriptions at a rapid pace. It takes Spencer three and a half hours to do what pharmacists take 24 hours to do. This new technology also eliminates room for human error. This means that people will always have the right medicine. If you are a customer waiting for a prescription, this technology will defiantly improve society. Some argue that this new technology will harm society because it will eliminate jobs for pharmacists. This is not true. The article says, “Instead of spending all day dispensing medicines, pharmacists have time to do what they were trained to do: care for patients"..