Positron emission tomography in the Montreal Neurological Institute & Hospital : a case study of a frontier technology

This thesis is an exploratory study of the factors that account for the construction of a local social world around a frontier medical technology. The analysis is based on participant-centred accounts of the structuring of a PET world in the MNI&H. According to local actors, the following factors can be identified to have played a role in the birth, promotion, structuring, and maintenance of the local PET world: the personalities; the institution; the resulting tradition; the assessment of PET; the sense of quality; the size of the local PET world and of the institution; elements of the environment such as cost, finding sources, and manufacturers. The data show that the structuration of the PET world in this elitist research cum hospital institution cannot serve as a model for the diffusion of this frontier technology, although the demarcated pattern exhibits some characteristics common with those described in the literature for similar innovations.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.22554
Date January 1995
CreatorsAnguelov, Zlatko, 1946-
ContributorsCambrosio, Alberto (advisor)
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Arts (Department of Sociology.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001467817, proquestno: MM05350, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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