{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,9]],"date-time":"2026-04-09T06:37:59Z","timestamp":1775716679352,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2006,1,1]],"date-time":"2006-01-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1136073600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2006,1,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>Seeks to explore the assumptions and limitations of current programmes for the creation of electronic patient records by comparing ICT programme statements with hospital uses of information.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>Compares qualitative data from medical ICT programmes statements with data from ethnographic studies of hospital decision making. Uses actor\u2010network theory to develop a performative definition of information as that which secures a decision or \u201cqualculation\u201d, whether in the form of calculation or judgement.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>Shows that decision making depends on a mix of formal and informal considerations that are, however, always restricted in scope and number. Shows that some of these are locally and organisationally contingent.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>The ethnographic findings illustrate the character of information rather than offering data about the character of decisions in different clinical locations.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Practical implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>Caution is needed in the face of claims about ICT programmes in health care. It is possible to anticipate neither all the uses of information nor what will count as information in advance.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>The paper develops a performative definition of information. This is whatever secures a decision in practice. Information thus reflects a situated process of simplification and bounding of relevancies. This suggests that information not only flows (which is assumed in ICT programme statements) but also is fluid, unpredictably changing its form and character. This claim is relevant both to the design and use of ICT in health care and to the theory of information.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/09593840610649961","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2006,7,3]],"date-time":"2006-07-03T18:27:59Z","timestamp":1151951279000},"page":"55-73","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":49,"title":["Fluids or flows? Information and qualculation in medical practice"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Ingunn","family":"Moser","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"John","family":"Law","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b1","unstructured":"Austin, J.L. (1965), in Urmston, J.O. (Ed.), How to Do Things with Words, Oxford University Press, Oxford."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Berg, M. (1997a), \u201cOf forms, containers, and the electronic medical record: some tools for a sociology of the formal\u201d, Science, Technology & Human Values, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 403\u201033.","DOI":"10.1177\/016224399702200401"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b3","unstructured":"Berg, M. (1997b), Rationalizing Medical Work: Decision\u2010Support Techniques and Medical Practices, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA and London."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Berg, M. and Timmermans, S. (2000), \u201cOrders and their others: on the constitution of universalities in medical work\u201d, Configurations, Vol. 8, pp. 31\u201061.","DOI":"10.1353\/con.2000.0001"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b5","unstructured":"Bijker, W.E., Hughes, T.P. and Pinch, T. (Eds) (1987), The Social Construction of Technical Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b6","unstructured":"Butler, J. (1993), Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of \u201cSex\u201d, Routledge, New York, NY and London."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Callon, M. (1986), \u201cSome elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of Saint Brieuc Bay\u201d, in Law, J. (Ed.), Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge?, Sociological Review Monograph, No. 32, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, pp. 196\u2010233.","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-954X.1984.tb00113.x"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Callon, M. and Law, J. (2005), \u201cOn qualculation, agency and otherness\u201d, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, available at: www.comp.lancs.ac.uk\/sociology\/papers\/callon\u2010law\u2010qualculation\u2010agency\u2010otherness.pdf.","DOI":"10.1068\/d343t"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"de Laet, M. and Mol, A. (2000), \u201cThe Zimbabwe bush pump: mechanics of a fluid technology\u201d, Social Studies of Science, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 225\u201063.","DOI":"10.1177\/030631200030002002"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b10","unstructured":"Department of Health (2003), \u201cEvery patient to get electronic patient record\u201d, available at: www.dh.gov.uk\/PublicationsAndStatistics\/PressReleases\/PressReleasesNotices\/fs\/en?CONTENT_ID=4062888&chk=SRDjWX (accessed 10 December 2004)."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ellingsen, G. and Monteiro, E. (2005), \u201cThe slight surprise of integration\u201d, in Sorensen, C., Yoo, Y., Lyytinen, K. and Degross, J.I. (Eds), Designing Ubiquitous Information Environments: Socio\u2010Technical Issues and Challenges, Springer, New York, NY, pp. 261\u201074.","DOI":"10.1007\/0-387-28918-6_20"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b12","unstructured":"Fujimura, J. (1992), \u201cCrafting science: standardized packages, boundary objects, and translation\u201d, in Pickering, A. (Ed.), Science as Practice and Culture, Chicago University Press, Chicago, IL, pp. 168\u2010214."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b13","unstructured":"Garfinkel, H. (1967a), \u201cGood organizational reasons for bad clinical records\u201d, Studies in Ethnomethodology, Prentice\u2010Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, pp. 186\u2010207."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b14","unstructured":"Garfinkel, H. (1967b), Studies in Ethnomethodology, Prentice\u2010Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b15","unstructured":"Grisot, M. (2004), \u201cIntegrating knowledge across disciplines: a case study from heart transplantation\u201d, paper presented at the 5th European Conference on Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Capabilities, Innsbruck."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b16","unstructured":"Grisot, M. (2005), \u201cOrdering fluidity and information and infrastructures: a case study of heart transplantation\u201d, PhD thesis, University of Oslo, Oslo."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hanseth, O., Aanestad, M. and Berg, M. (2004), \u201cActor\u2010network theory and information systems: what's so special?\u201d, Information Technology & People, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 116\u201023.","DOI":"10.1108\/09593840410542466"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hanseth, O. et al. (2006), \u201cReflexive standardization. Side\u2010effects and complexity in standard\u2010making\u201d, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 30, forthcoming.","DOI":"10.2307\/25148773"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b19","unstructured":"Haraway, D. (1991a), \u201cA cyborg manifesto: science, technology and socialist feminism in the late twentieth century\u201d, in Haraway, D. (Ed.), Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Free Association Books, London, pp. 149\u201081, available at: www.stanford.edu\/dept\/HPS\/Haraway\/CyborgManifesto.html."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b20","unstructured":"Haraway, D. (1991b), \u201cSituated knowledges: the science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective\u201d, in Haraway, D. (Ed.), Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Free Association Books, London, pp. 183\u2010201, available at: www.hsph.harvard.edu\/rt21\/concepts\/HARAWAY.html."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b21","unstructured":"Haraway, D.J. (1997), Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.Female_Man\u00a9_Meets_Oncomouse\u2122: Feminism and Technoscience, Routledge, New York, NY and London."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Heath, C. and Luff, P. (2000), Technology in Action, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511489839"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hutchins, E. (1995), Cognition in the Wild, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA and London.","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/1881.001.0001"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b24","unstructured":"Jensen, C.B. (2004), \u201cExperimental devices: studies in STS and electronic patient records\u201d, PhD thesis, \u00c5rhus University, \u00c5rhus."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jensen, C.B. (2005), \u201cAn experiment in performative history: electronic patient records as a future\u2010generating device\u201d, Social Studies of Science, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 241\u201067.","DOI":"10.1177\/0306312705047737"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b26","unstructured":"Latour, B. (1987), Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society, Open University Press, Buckingham."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b27","unstructured":"Latour, B. (1990), \u201cDrawing things together\u201d, in Lynch, M. and Woolgar, S. (Eds), Representation in Scientific Practice, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 19\u201068."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b28","unstructured":"Latour, B. (1998), Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b29","unstructured":"Law, J. (1994), Organizing Modernity, Blackwell, Oxford."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Law, J. (2002), Aircraft Stories: Decentering the Object in Technoscience, Duke University Press, Durham, NC.","DOI":"10.1215\/9780822383543"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b31","unstructured":"Law, J. (2004), After Method: Mess in Social Science Research, Routledge, London."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b32","unstructured":"Law, J. and Hassard, J. (Eds) (1999), Actor Network Theory and After, Blackwell\/The Sociological Review, Oxford\/Keele."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Law, J. and Mol, A. (2001), \u201cSituating technoscience: an inquiry into spatialities\u201d, Society and Space, Vol. 19, pp. 609\u201021.","DOI":"10.1068\/d243t"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lee, N. and Brown, S. (1994), \u201cOtherness and the actor network: the undiscovered continent\u201d, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 36, pp. 772\u201090.","DOI":"10.1177\/0002764294037006005"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b35","unstructured":"Lynch, M. (1990), \u201cThe externalized retina: selection and mathematization in the visual documentation of objects in the life sciences\u201d, in Lynch, M. and Woolgar, S. (Eds), Representation in Scientific Practice, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA and London."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"MacKay, D.M. (1969), Information, Mechanism and Meaning, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/3769.001.0001"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b37","unstructured":"Ministry of Health and Ministry of Social Affairs (2004), \u201cTe@mwork 2007: electronic interaction in the health and social sector\u201d, available at: www.shdir.no\/assets\/13163\/Te@mwork%202007.pdf (accessed 11 December 2004)."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mol, A. (2002), The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice, Duke University Press, Durham, NC and London.","DOI":"10.1215\/9780822384151"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mol, A. and Law, J. (1994), \u201cRegions, networks and fluids: anaemia and social topology\u201d, Social Studies of Science, Vol. 24, pp. 641\u201071.","DOI":"10.1177\/030631279402400402"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b100","unstructured":"Moser, I. (2005), \u201cInformation and its uses in medical practice: a critical interrogation of IT plans and visions in health care\u201d, International Journal of Action Research, Vol. 1 No. 3, pp. 339\u201073."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b40","unstructured":"NHS Information Authority (2001), \u201cInformation for health \u2013 1. An information strategy for the modern NHS\u201d, available at: www.nhsia.nhs.uk\/def\/pages\/info4health\/1.asp (accessed 10 December 2004)."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Osborne, T. and Rose, N. (1999), \u201cDo the social sciences create phenomena? The example of public opinion research\u201d, British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 50, pp. 367\u201096.","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1468-4446.1999.00367.x"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b42","unstructured":"\u00d8sterlund, C.S. (2002), \u201cDocumenting dreams: patient\u2010centred records versus practice\u2010centred records\u201d, PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Simon, H.A. (1955), \u201cA behavioral model of rational choice\u201d, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 68, pp. 99\u2010118.","DOI":"10.2307\/1884852"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Singleton, V. (1998), \u201cStabilizing instabilities: the role of the laboratory in the United Kingdom cervical screening programme\u201d, in Berg, M. and Mol, A. (Eds), Differences in Medicine: Unravelling Practices, Techniques and Bodies, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, pp. 86\u2010104.","DOI":"10.2307\/j.ctv1220pvr.8"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Star, S.L. (1991), \u201cPower, technologies and the phenomenology of conventions: on being allergic to onions\u201d, in Law, J. (Ed.), A Sociology of Monsters? Essays on Power, Technology and Domination, Sociological Review Monograph, No. 38, pp. 26\u201056.","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-954X.1990.tb03347.x"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b46","unstructured":"Suchman, L. (1987), Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human\u2010Machine Communication, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Timmermans, S. and Berg, M. (1997), \u201cStandardization in action: achieving local universality through medical protocols\u201d, Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, pp. 273\u2010305.","DOI":"10.1177\/030631297027002003"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Timmermans, S., Bowker, G.C. and Star, S.L. (1998), \u201cThe architecture of difference: visibility, control, and comparability in building a nursing interventions classification\u201d, in Berg, M. and Mol, A. (Eds), Differences in Medicine: Unraveling Practices, Techniques and Bodies, Duke University Press, Durham, NC and London, pp. 202\u201025.","DOI":"10.2307\/j.ctv1220pvr.13"},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b49","unstructured":"Wanless, D. (2002), Wanless Report: Final Report 2002, HM Treasury, London, available at: www.hm\u2010treasury.gov.uk\/Consultations_and_Legislation\/wanless\/consult_wanless_final.cfm."},{"key":"key2022020120135878500_b50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Winthereik, B.R. and Jensen, C.B. (2002), \u201cPolitical and moralising moments: documents as material agents in Danish visions of IT in health care\u201d, Information Technology & People, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 127\u201041.","DOI":"10.1108\/09593840210444764"}],"container-title":["Information Technology &amp; People"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emeraldinsight.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1108\/09593840610649961","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/09593840610649961\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/09593840610649961\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,25]],"date-time":"2025-07-25T00:36:47Z","timestamp":1753403807000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/itp\/article\/19\/1\/55-73\/178444"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Edoardo","family":"Jacucci","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"editor","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2006,1,1]]},"references-count":51,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2006,1,1]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/09593840610649961"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/09593840610649961","relation":{},"ISSN":["0959-3845"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0959-3845","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2006,1,1]]}}}