A methodology to assess social technological alignment in the health domain

Abstract

There have been longstanding discussions whether social or technological factors eventually determine the speed of innovation, in particular when it comes to implementation. In order to identify and quantify potential resistance and implementation risks in the health domain we propose a set of key parameters, which are measurable in both – the social and the technological dimensions. Following a meta-analysis we identified the following parameters to be of relevance: readiness, shared values, motivation, elasticity, control and time. All these parameters are scalable and measurable in both dimensions with existing tools. Mapping and comparison of the social and technological dimensions of these parameters might allow conclusions on how far the social and technological dimensions of these parameters are aligned and where potential difficulties during the implementation have to be expected. (This paper refers to the technical term “implementation” as the process of integrating a new technology into established workflows.)