Customisation of Health Technology as a Condition of Hybridity: The Case of the English NHS

• In Event: 322 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 15. Healthcare Organizations

Abstract

This paper presents findings from our research into the implementation of a national Electronic Patient Record (EPR) in the NHS in England. It aims to discuss the relation between phenomenally contradictory processes namely software customisation and standardisation. It focuses on the way in which a hospital customised an EPR as it collaborated with stakeholders such as software developers, local service providers, healthcare professionals and a governmental authority that oversaw the process. The paper argues that customization of EPR is a distributed process that involves cycles of translation, which span across geographical, cultural and professional boundaries. Translation conditions the emergence of hybrid technology in which the politics of boundaries play a prominent role. Finally, it proposes that hybrid technology opens up space for innovation, and specifically for standardization of healthcare.

Authors

• Dimitra Petrakaki, University of Sussex

• Ela Klecun, London School of Economics and Political Science