Nosocomial automation: technology-induced complexity and human performance

Automation is examined from a cost-benefit point of view, revealing some of the hidden costs of `clumsy´ application of technology. Nanosecond automation is discussed. The term nosocomial automation, which refers to the complexity that results from the accumulation of small increments of technology and how this accumulated complexity affects human performance, is discussed. Nosocomial is used in the same sense as in nosocomial infection in medicine. The authors also have identified several types of practitioner adaptation to the impact of new information technology, which they have termed system tailoring and task tailoring. In system tailoring, practitioners adapt/change the surrounding context of activity (the setup of device and device configuration, how the device is situated in the larger context) in order to maintain or support or preserve a fixed or unchanging style or strategy for carrying out tasks