In search of the sociotechnical configurations of telemedicine

The driving forces and effects of the development of telemedicine are still largely unknown, although work undertaken in the social sciences and Science and Technology Studies (STS) at an international level since the early 2000s has been remarkably fruitful. In this article we first present existing research on the transformations surrounding the integration of telemedicine systems in the organization of healthcare. Secondly, we discuss research on the actual uses of these systems in clinical practice. We review the main social science research on telemedicine in a broad sense, as well as pathways to explore in order to shed light on its transformations and its (difficult) deployment: ways of organizing care, managing projects and taking up or refusing innovation, the spatial location of telemedicine systems, the situated and distributed nature of practices and knowledge, forms of cooperation, delegation and learning, professional identities, etc. Each of these themes could be further investigated, often in conjunction with one another, to further our understanding of the development of telemedicine in France, which has so far received little attention from the social sciences.