This book draws on medical sociology and science and technology studies to develop a novel conceptual framework for understanding innovation processes, using the case study of deep brain stimulation in paediatric neurology. It addresses key questions, including:  How are promising and potentially disruptive new health technologies integrated into busy resource-constrained clinical contexts? What activities are involved in establishing a new clinical service?  How do social and cultural forces shape these services, and importantly, how are understandings of ‘health’ and ‘illness’ reconfigured in the process? The book explores how the ideals of patient-centred medicine influence innovation in the clinic, and it introduces the concept of patient-centred proto-platforms. It argues that patient-centred innovation can constitute an expansion of medical power, as the clinical gaze is directed not only towards the body but also towards the patient as a social being. This will be an innovative and insightful read for academics and advanced students, as well as health service researchers with an interest in technology adoption processes.

“Setting innovation in the context of Evidence Based Medicine, John Gardner elucidates attempts to redefine what counts as evidence and to make visible improvements that patients, their families and carers value but that cannot be captured by existing measurement tools. The book has wide appeal; it is written with both command and sensitivity and will be of value to all those concerned with the concept of ‘innovation’ - scientific, technological and medical, and more generally to those interested in the place of science and technology in health care and their remaking as they become entangled with human-centred practices of care.” (Dawn Goodwin, Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences and Director of PBL at Lancaster University, England)

Innovatively intertwines STS studies and medical sociology, taking a Foucauldian lens to understand the impact of patient-centricity on technical innovations Explores the topical fields of medical innovations and neurotechnologies Discusses problems that can arise with the introduction of new health technologies