Whatever works: Uncertainty and technological hybrids in medical innovation

David Barberá-Tomás and Davide Consoli

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2012, vol. 79, issue 5, 932-948

Abstract: The persistent uncertainty that looms over the search for solutions to health problems offers important conceptual insights for the study of technological change. This paper explores the notion of hybridization, namely the embodiment of multiple competing operational principles within a single medical device, as strategy to deal with the practical shortcomings due to said uncertainty. The history of the development of the hybrid artificial disc affords the elaboration of an alternative view of hybridization and, at the same time, the articulation of a dualism between medical science as area of basic research (e.g. what disease is) and as practical knowledge (e.g. how disease can be tackled).

Keywords: Medical innovation; Hybridization; Uncertainty; Technological evolution; Implantable medical devices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162511002873
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Whatever works: uncertainty and technological hybrids in medical innovation (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:79:y:2012:i:5:p:932-948

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2011.12.009

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().