Avoiding "shiny objects" and heeding "red flags": a sensemaking framework for emerging technology procurement

Health systems can be vulnerable to "shiny object syndrome," adopting unneeded emerging technologies (ETs), or may ignore "red flags" if they rely on linear health technology procurement processes that exclude the influence of information exchanges between the health system, vendors, and industry partners.

We conduct a post-hoc comparison of 2 procured communication-related clinical workflow ETs and examine ET-related IT Committee meetings within an academic medical center. We apply sensemaking theory, highlighting examples where sense-giving, sense-demanding, and sense-breaking were present or absent across stakeholders during procurement.

Present (or absent) sensemaking dynamics demonstrated reciprocity (or lack thereof) across all 3 sensemaking components. Sense-breaking particularly informed committee meetings, leading to new technological and organizational infrastructure.

Our emergent sensemaking ET procurement framework offers 3 actionable recommendations: formalize multi-stakeholder information exchange roles, treat vendor responsiveness to sense-demanding as a selection criterion, and use each procurement cycle to surface and address foundational governance and infrastructure gaps.