The Diffusion of Telemedicine

Telemedicine, the use of telecommunication technologies in the delivery of health services, has literally burst upon the health care scene during this decade. However, no study to date has attempted anything further than a cursory examination of the diffusion of this innovation. This article argues that a linear approach is inadequate to understand the diffusion of decentralized and continually reinvented innovations such as telemedicine. Instead, a communicative focus which privileges the role of participatory conversation is used to examine and explain the invention, diffusion, and reinvention of telemedicine.