title: Resisting and promoting new technologies in clinical practice: the case of telepsychiatry.
abstract: New telecommunications technologies promise to profoundly change the spatial and temporal relationship between health professional and patient. This paper reports results from an ethnographic study of the introduction of a videophone or 'telemedicine' system intended to facilitate faster and more convenient referral of patients with anxiety and depression in primary care, to a community mental health team. We explore the reasons for contest over the telemedicine system in practice, contrasting professionals' critique of the technology in play with a more fundamental problem: the extent to which the telecommunications system threatened deeply embedded professional constructs about the nature and practice of therapeutic relationships.
authors.affiliation: School of Primary Care, University of Manchester, Rusholme Health Centre, UK. cmay@man.ac.uk
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gask
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Atkinson
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ellis
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mair
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Esmail
mesh_terms: D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005194:Family Practice / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000639:trends; D006113:United Kingdom