New medical technologies

Technologies are integral to the practices of contemporary healthcare, and new medical technologies are often the centre of hyped portrayals of medicine as an endeavour. New medical technologies have therefore become an important focus of research in the social sciences, including health economic analysis, implementation studies, and technology forecasting. This entry, however, focuses on research that is sociologically or anthropologically orientated, and which is generally aimed at exploring the tensions, contradictions, ambiguities and affordances that emerge as humans and technologies become more and more entwined in healthcare settings. The entry describes and advocates for a ‘technologies-in-practice’ approach for exploring new medical technologies. This reflects the influence of new materialism and theoretical insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Feminist Technoscience. Such an approach draws attention to the co-constituting relationship between humans, technologies, and social structures.