Information Infrastructure in Use An empirical study at a radiology department

This paper illustrates how radiological information infrastructures emerge in a larger medical network. This is done by focusing on how artifacts are linked together into long chains and how these chains are linked together with the working practices of the personnel at the department. The replacement of medical records and radiological films has shown to be problematic. This study analyzes how an infrastructure perspective can support designers replacing existing parts of an infrastructure, as medical records or films, by a computer based sub-infrastructure. In this process we use the notion of gateways, as an interface between different networks, to achieve compatibility between the new electronic network and the larger old actor network.