Understanding the social implications of ICT in medicine and health: The role of professional societies

Abstract

In past times, engineers and other ICT professionals could normally function exclusively within an environment of purely technical dimensions. This sphere could be easily delineated from those involving policy, political or social questions. Consequently, these professions could well be characterized as generally isolated from mainstream society, engendering a condition that Zussman (1985) has described as a 'technical rationality that is the engineer's stock-in-trade requir[ing] the calculation of means for the realization of given ends. But it requir[ing] no broad insight into those ends or their consequences'. This condition has often led to a perceived technical mindset that according to Florman (1976), draws upon 'the comfort that comes with the total absorption in a mechanical environment. The world becomes reduced and manageable, controlled and unchaotic'. In a relatively short period of time, ICT has been radically transformed in both its capabilities and reach. Specifically, within the context of this event, the permeation of digital technologies into nearly every aspect of bioengineering and healthcare delivery have broken down the borders between technological pursuits and the larger dynamics of society. This has in turn has produced, according to Williams (2000) a discipline that has 'evolved into an open-ended Profession of Everything in a world where technology shades into science, into art, and into management, with no strong institutions to define an overarching mission'. Within ICT, H.C. von Baeyer (2003) affirms this status in noting 'the frustration of engineers who have at their disposal a variety of methods for measuring the amount of information in a message, but to none deal with its meaning'. © 2005 The authors. All rights reserved.