This book explores the ways in which socio-technical settings in medical
contexts find varying articulations in a specific locale. Focusing on
Japan, it consists of nine case studies on topics concerning:
experiences with radiation in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima;
patient security, end-of-life and high-tech medicine in hospitals;
innovation and diffusion of medical technology; and the engineering and
evaluating of novel devices in clinical trials. The individual chapters
situate humans and devices in medical settings in their given semantic,
pragmatic, institutional and historical context. A highly
interdisciplinary approach offers deep insights beyond the manifold
findings of each case study, thereby enriching academic discussions on
socio-technical settings in medical contexts amongst affiliated
disciplines. This volume will be of broad interest to scholars,
practitioners, policy makers and students from various disciplines,
including Science and Technology Studies (STS), medical humanities,
social sciences, ethics and law, business and innovation studies, as
well as biomedical engineering, medicine and public health.