Images of Health Technology in National and Local Strategies

Summary

Objectives: This paper examines the potential of various models relating technology to society and institutional structures to inform health policy. Among the models discussed are various versions of technological determinism, social constructivism, actor network theory and critical theory.

Methods: The paper considers recent developments in policy and strategy that aim to shape the way the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) integrates Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into health care and considers what these alternative models highlight or emphasise, and how they might influence the activities of setting local implementation strategies.

Results and Conclusions: Contemporary ICTs are often presented as having a particular relevance and power in reforming or transforming the delivery of health care. Understanding how such technologies might be conceived of, implemented and become an integral part of some future health care system is an important and challenging task that requires innovative theoretical treatments.

Keywords

Social shaping of technology - actor-network theory - health policy - local implementation strategies - NHS information technology policy

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