Technology transition within secure message delivery (SMD) systems

This article reports on a qualitative interview-based study that set out to explore why fax has come to form such an enduring communication medium, particularly within healthcare contexts. We sought to understand the persistence of the fax within the healthcare system in the Australian state of Victoria, and to examine impediments to the take-up of modern, encrypted health communication – secure message delivery (SMD) – systems. From our study, we identified different dynamics that contribute to the persistence of fax within healthcare communications. Media systems are understood as layered and discursively rich, where older forms persist through residual logics, industry inertia, and embedded norms. Drawing from media and communication, cultural studies and transition studies approaches, we characterise these dynamics of persistence as socio-material entrenchment, institutional and regime interdependencies, and technological lock-in and infrastructural inertia.