Modes of reasoning in theories of the social impact of advanced technology: A critique of ERP systems in healthcare

Human-centred systems has a long theoretical tradition within the automation and control community stretching back at least into the 1970s and particularly in manufacturing systems. As automation and control systems are increasingly important outside the factory many researchers are revisiting core concepts within this tradition in order to address concerns in these other contexts. One particularly important sector is health care which, in recent years, has implemented a range of AMAT-type solutions not least of which are enterprise systems. This paper reviews the application of enterprise integration systems to health-care and, in doing so, unpacks several theoretical tensions. The paper proposes a re-assessment of human-centred systems (HCS) thinking as a way to address these tensions in automatic healthcare systems.