Health, Technology and Society

The impact of technology on health service is an issue of global concern, and this pertinent text provides a fascinating account of current health care technologies and their implications for health providers and users.

Health, Technology and Society looks at a range of current innovative health technologies, asking what the impetus is behind these systems, how they compare with and relate to the long tradition of health technology, and what new questions they pose for healthcare providers, users and regulators. In doing so, it explores how far new health technologies change the boundaries between the body, health, technology relationship, and assess the contribution a critical social science can make towards our understanding of this shift. At a time when many new developments are taking place in healthcare technologies, and when healthcare systems across the globe are increasingly underpinned by infrastructures dependent on information and communication technologies, this book addresses a key issue in current teaching and practice across a range of fields.

ANDREW WEBSTER is Professor in the sociology of science and technology at the University of York. In 1988 he established the Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU) and in 1999 he was appointed Director of the ESRC’s £5 million Innovative Health Technologies Programme. He is the author of many books and articles. Recent publications include Contested Futures: Mobilising tomorrow’s science and technology, Introductory Sociology (Palgrave), Science Technology & Society: New Directions (Palgrave), and New Medical Technologies and Society: Reordering Life.

Introduction: Understanding Innovative Health Technologies * The Dynamics of Biomedical Innovation * Corporate Health, Markets and Regulation * Body, Identity and the Meaning of Health * Managing and Governing New Health Technologies * The New Sick Role * Conclusion: novelty and continuity