Technology Makers as De Facto Work Designers in American Healthcare
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19220344 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Deepa Kylasam Iyer (0000-0003-0159-4018, Cornell University, corresponding author), Ayaj Rana (0000-0003-1239-3561, Cornell University), Adam Seth Litwin (0000-0003-3130-814X, Cornell University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Work and Occupations (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0730-8884 • E-ISSN: 1552-8464 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/07308884261454636 |
| OpenAlex | W7162005486 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
Artificial intelligence (AI) usually enters organizations as a tool whose work-design implications appear only after implementation. This study shifts the analytic starting point upstream to examine how healthcare AI “makers,” through market-facing narratives, frame AI as suitable for adoption in a regulated, professionally governed field. We ask how technology makers construct and legitimate work-design scripts before organizational implementation. We then analyze public-facing materials from 100 U.S. healthcare AI firms (2023–2026)—including vision statements, product descriptions, and white papers—alongside 19 healthcare trade-journal articles (2023–2025) quoting hospital executives and physician leaders. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identify three recurring design logics that makers use to frame AI as adoptable: efficiency , which simplifies complexity and boosts productivity; safety , which establishes quality control and risk management; and precision , which ensures accuracy through human oversight. Makers operationalize these logics through three adoption scripts: turnkey solutions that promise rapid deployment and interoperability, configurable solutions that frame bounded rule-setting as a route to governability, and customizable solutions that emphasize partnership and validation for contextual fit. Trade-journal discourse provides demand-side triangulation by framing responsible adoption in governance terms. By showing how technology makers’ scripts direct work organization before implementation even begins, the study advances a theory of upstream work design centered on the marketing of novel technology
Corporate governance · Framing (construction) · General partnership · Health care · Operationalization · Reflexivity · Software deployment · Toolbox · Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
The System of Professions
Prevalence of Burnout Among Physicians
Integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features
Sociomaterial Practices
The Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ)
From Triple to Quadruple Aim
Beyond Motivation
Redesigning Work Design Theories
The potential for artificial intelligence in healthcare
Motivation through the design of work
The Job Demands‐Resources model
Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure
The Black Box Society
A worked example of Braun and Clarke’s approach to reflexive thematic analysis
Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis
Not what it was and not what it will be
Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal-Getting
The Principles of Sociotechnical Design
Using thematic analysis in psychology
An Introduction to Market Devices
Managers Shaping the Service Triangle
Moving from Adoption to Use
General Practitioners Are from Mars, Administrators Are from Venus
Commensuration as a Social Process
A World of Standards but not a Standard World
The economy of qualities
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |