Talking About Distributed Communication and Medicine: On Bringing Together Remote and Local Actors

In this commentary we reflect on the articles in this special issue on computer-mediated communication (CMC) "about things." We do this from our perspective as researchers of the sociotechnical practices of developing, using, and evaluating information technologies for health care work. The relevance of the articles for a medical setting is evaluated, and we also indicate that the material embeddedness of CMC should be "unpacked." By focusing on the materiality of CMC in its working practice, we can see the otherwise invisible work that performs the ecology needed to "make a CMC work." Only when seeing these activities, and when realizing the risks of possible miscommunications, can we assess the desirability and feasibility of (telemedicine) CMC projects.