Implementation of medical technology in management and engineering studies: A systematic literature review and future research agenda

Abstract

Medical technology is an important part of healthcare and society, and new solutions are needed to meet the demands of aging population and prevalence of chronic diseases. During the last decade considerable technical progression has taken place but implementation of these new solutions is still cumbersome. This study reviews the current state of research within management and engineering studies concerning implementation of medical technology and identifies avenues for further research. A systematic search with keywords such as implementation and medical technology identified 2809 hits of which only ten papers were about implementation of medical technology. This review provides four contributions to research and management: (1) the findings show that there is no field that can be called implementation of medical technology within management and engineering studies, (2) there is no specific journal that publishes research on the topic, (3) majority of the papers are opinion articles and qualitative case studies and (4) many reported barriers to implementation relate to technology. In order to address the complex task of implementing medical technology, management scholars to a larger extent need to acknowledge and study aspects that go beyond technology.