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Towards a wireless patient: chronic illness, scarce care and technological innovation in the United Kingdom

Towards a wireless patient: chronic illness, scarce care and technological innovation in the United Kingdom
Towards a wireless patient: chronic illness, scarce care and technological innovation in the United Kingdom
‘Modernization’ is a key health policy objective in the UK. It extends across a range of public service delivery and organizational contexts, and also means there are radical changes in perspective on professional behaviour and practice. New information and communications technologies have been seen as one of the key mechanisms by which these changes can be engendered. In particular, massive investment in information technologies promises the rapid distribution and deployment of patient-centred information across internal organizational boundaries. While the National Health Service (NHS) sits on the edge of a £6billion investment in electronic patient records, other technologies find their status as innovative vehicles for professional behaviour change and service delivery in question. In this paper, we consider the ways that telemedicine and telehealthcare systems have been constructed first as a field of technological innovation, and more recently, as management solutions to problems around the distribution of health care. We use NHS responses to chronic illness as a medium for understanding these shifts. In particular, we draw attention to the shifting definitions of ‘innovation’ and to the ways that these shifts define a move away from notions of technological advance towards management control.

telehealthcare, chronic illness, united kingdom, technologies
0277-9536
1485-1494
May, Carl
17697f8d-98f6-40d3-9cc0-022f04009ae4
Finch, Tracy
b1916307-8516-4b70-8ba5-05d3310839de
Mair, Frances
5a57846b-cda7-4368-9d20-0aa2a1d490ca
Mort, Maggie
d4ca7be5-46e0-4708-a380-35f14ea54c72
May, Carl
17697f8d-98f6-40d3-9cc0-022f04009ae4
Finch, Tracy
b1916307-8516-4b70-8ba5-05d3310839de
Mair, Frances
5a57846b-cda7-4368-9d20-0aa2a1d490ca
Mort, Maggie
d4ca7be5-46e0-4708-a380-35f14ea54c72

May, Carl, Finch, Tracy, Mair, Frances and Mort, Maggie (2005) Towards a wireless patient: chronic illness, scarce care and technological innovation in the United Kingdom. Social Science & Medicine, 61 (7), 1485-1494. (doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.03.008).

Record type: Article

Abstract

‘Modernization’ is a key health policy objective in the UK. It extends across a range of public service delivery and organizational contexts, and also means there are radical changes in perspective on professional behaviour and practice. New information and communications technologies have been seen as one of the key mechanisms by which these changes can be engendered. In particular, massive investment in information technologies promises the rapid distribution and deployment of patient-centred information across internal organizational boundaries. While the National Health Service (NHS) sits on the edge of a £6billion investment in electronic patient records, other technologies find their status as innovative vehicles for professional behaviour change and service delivery in question. In this paper, we consider the ways that telemedicine and telehealthcare systems have been constructed first as a field of technological innovation, and more recently, as management solutions to problems around the distribution of health care. We use NHS responses to chronic illness as a medium for understanding these shifts. In particular, we draw attention to the shifting definitions of ‘innovation’ and to the ways that these shifts define a move away from notions of technological advance towards management control.

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More information

Published date: October 2005
Keywords: telehealthcare, chronic illness, united kingdom, technologies

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 163527
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/163527
ISSN: 0277-9536
PURE UUID: 332aa407-db8c-4b3c-af9c-b98952e5751d
ORCID for Carl May: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0451-2690

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Date deposited: 09 Sep 2010 10:15
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:05

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Contributors

Author: Carl May ORCID iD
Author: Tracy Finch
Author: Frances Mair
Author: Maggie Mort

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