Gender, Information Technology, and Making Health Work: Unpacking Complex Relations at Work

Abstract

Virtually all health sector work requires a high degree of interaction with technologies, ranging from medical devices such as defibulators to electronic medical records. Although this chapter focuses on information technologies specifically, the definition is a broad one and includes any technologies that provide a means through which health information is made visible to, and circulated between, staff and practitioners who then act on that information as they manage patients’ health. Within this definition, heart monitors, which convey information about heart rate and heart rhythms over time, alerting practitioners to problems requiring action may be thought of as information technologies. More conventional definitions of information technologies would include electronic patient record systems which record test values and data about patients over time, in support of diagnosis and care planning. When successfully embedded in work practices, health information technologies can support managerial, clinical, and/or administrative staff as they work together with patients to produce health.