When protocols fail: technical evaluation, biomedical knowledge, and the social production of 'facts' about a telemedicine clinic
May, Carl and Ellis, Nicola T. (2001) When protocols fail: technical evaluation, biomedical knowledge, and the social production of 'facts' about a telemedicine clinic. Social Science & Medicine, 53, (8), 989-1002. (doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00394-4).
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Description/Abstract
Telecommunications systems seem to offer health care providers, professionals and patients a plethora of opportunities to respond to social and geographical inequalities in health care provision, and a new field of health care endeavor has emerged — ‘telemedicine’. This paper presents results from a three year ethnographic study of the development and implementation of telemedicine systems in a British region. We explore how attempts to put into service one ‘telemedicine’ system failed to get beyond the draft of a written protocol. Our analysis focuses on the contests between clinicians, technical experts and external evaluators over what kinds of knowledge and practice count in developing a protocol and evaluating a clinical intervention. We show how the introduction and implementation of ‘hard’ technologies (systems hardware) can be undermined in practice by ‘soft’ technologies (the practices through which evaluative knowledge is produced).
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| ISSNs: | 0277-9536 (print) 1873-5347 (electronic) |
| Related URLs: | |
| Keywords: | telemedicine, social construction, medical knowledge, evaluation, uk |
| Subjects: | R Medicine > RZ Other systems of medicine H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications |
| Divisions: | University Structure - Pre August 2011 > School of Health Sciences |
| Item ID: | 163429 |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Sep 2010 08:55 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Jun 2011 07:49 |
| Contributors: | May, Carl (Author) Ellis, Nicola T. (Author) |
| Date: | October 2001 |
| Status: | Published |
| URI: | http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/163429 |
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