New Technology as a Catalyst in the Transformation of Medical Specialties

• In Event: Rethinking Health Professions in the 21st Century: Innovations, Interruptions, and Regenerations

Abstract

New technology in clinical medicine can be disruptive of work, work identities and work relationships. These problems become generally visible when medical specialties, existing or emerging, compete for control of the new modality-- whether to advance it, capitalize on it, or contain it. However, prior to these formalized battles, local physicians and surgeons have tangibly, if idiosyncratically, won and lost many campaigns to use and control (or prevent use and control) of the new modality. These battles will have outlined issues and coalitions, the pattern of diffusion, and student recruitment. This paper is a qualitative analysis of 30 personal interviews with neonatologists in the U.S and U.K. to document longitudinally how disruptive technology in neonatology altered the work and relationships of neonatologists.

Author

• Ann Lennarson Greer, University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee