Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards a wireless patient
T2 - Chronic illness, scarce care and technological innovation in the United Kingdom
AU - May, Carl
AU - Finch, Tracy
AU - Mair, Frances
AU - Mort, Maggie
PY - 2005/10/1
Y1 - 2005/10/1
N2 - '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.
AB - '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.
KW - Chronic illness
KW - Technologies
KW - Telehealthcare
KW - United Kingdom
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.03.008
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.03.008
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 15893864
AN - SCOPUS:22344436974
VL - 61
SP - 1485
EP - 1494
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
SN - 0277-9536
IS - 7
ER -