This book presents an international snapshot of the social organization of healthcare work. It brings together a series of papers describing major trends in health services in Australia, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, South America, UK and the USA, including the introduction of new models of organizational governance, the emergence of new medical technologies, and the effects of the promotion of private health insurance.
The book's contributors draw on research from a range of disciplines, including organisational sociology and sociology of scientific knowledge, as well as medical sociology, and foster links between these different bodies of work. What emerges is a picture of rapidly evolving healthcare systems, in which the traditional lines of demarcation are being challenged, prompting the development of new roles and new ways of working.