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Article ID: CBB001031216

Computers, Systems Theory, and the Making of a Wired Hospital: A History of Technicon Medical Information System, 1964--1987 (2010)

Plotnick, Rachel (Author)

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Volume: 61
Pages: 1281--1294

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Computer science Medicine and technology, relationships Hospitals and clinics Computers and computing Medical technology 20th century, late United States

This paper investigates the controversy surrounding the systems approach in medicine, contributing to the body of literature on systems and information technology in civilian contexts. Specifically, the paper follows the design and implementation of a hospital information system at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California, in the 1960s and 1970s. The case study suggests that while many considered people problems like healthcare too complex for the systems approach, in fact it could have positive results if system engineers could translate social concerns about medicine into business and organizational strategies. This paper identifies the ways systems designers approached an organization characterized by autonomy rather than collaboration, craft rather than science, and charity rather than business, and helped to redefine that organization as one that emphasized rationality, efficiency, and the coexistence of man and machine.

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