Is it Health Information Technology? Task Complexity and Work Substitution

New technology is making it possible to replace professions built on complex knowledge, e.g. medicine. In our exploratory research we examined how Information Technologies might be replacing some of the tasks formerly processed by physician anesthesiologists (MDAs). Data (N=1178) were collected at a specialized hospital in the Netherlands. We observed the tasks carried out by fourteen MDAs during their daily work in the operating room and map these tasks to McGrath’s (1984) circumplex. Our results show that MDAs frequently carry out two or three tasks concomitantly; mainly intellective, planning and psychomotor tasks. Based on the results of the interviews, we find that MDAs feel ill equipped on conflict resolution and negotiation tasks. Yet they feel it is exactly on those segments where their added value lies. Information Technologies may outsmart MDAs where they spent most of their time: in planning, problem solving and psychomotor tasks.

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