Sociotechnical Systems Theory
Sociotechnical systems theory (STS) focuses on understanding how a social system incorporates new technologies, described as having both social and technical components that interact and influence each other (Bostrom et al., 2009). According to STS, the social and the technical should be allocated comparable emphases in understanding technology adoption and usage, where the interplay between the two results in unintended consequences and outcomes that cannot be completely planned, controlled, or understood in advance (Beath et al., 2013; Bostrom & Heinen, 1977). STS perspectives have a long history of application in the information systems field. Scholars have used STS to explain the use of technology in practice (Bostrom & Heinen, 1977; Orlikowski, 2000; Sarker et al., 2019), and, inspired by calls to action more than a decade ago (Whetton & Georgiou, 2010), health informatics research using an STS lens has expanded (e.g., Bernardo et al., 2020; Mohr & Dessers, 2019; Sittig & Singh, 2015).
In this paper, the authors explore the meaning of task–technology fit (TTF) in the context of health care service delivery from the patient’s perspective. The concept of TTF can be broadly applied to any situation in which individuals use technology to accomplish a specific task and is defined as the correspondence between task requirements, individual abilities, and the functionality of the technology (Goodhue & Thompson, 1995). An examination of the patient’s perception of TTF through an STS lens reveals that changing one part of the system alone—for example, by expanding access through broadband—may not have the expected positive impact on patient adoption and improved health care outcomes.