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Paper short abstract

The profession of neurology in the UK is changing, at the same time as innovations in its professional tools – most visibly, neurotechnologies – are occurring. We consider two imaginaries of neurology, and parse how these might imply very different futures for integrating neurotech into healthcare.

Paper long abstract

In the UK, optimism around promising therapies for neurological conditions is now longstanding, and continues to grow – including within the profession of neurology. At the same time, some neurological associations appear far more concerned about staffing, (over-)specialisation, and the economics of the UK National Health Service (NHS) than with technological innovation per se. We can see, then, that at least two semiotic configurations of the potential for neurotechnology to enhance practice are emerging, and which exist in friction with one another. Within the first, neurologists and their patients should be celebrating: neurotechnologies are being innovated to enhance diagnostic capabilities, speed up clinical practice, lessen the burden on healthcare professionals, and improve patient care. While this configuration acknowledges there may be what is termed ‘resistance’ to new technologies, the NHS is nevertheless characterised as a natural home for neurotech. In the second configuration, however, technological innovation is regarded as almost a distraction from clinical exigencies and even more existential considerations about the future of neurology as a distinct profession. Our provocation is that a third configuration seems discernible, and that as STS scholars we might even actively support it to flourish. In it, the relationality between neurology and neurotech involves reflexive hope tempered by realism and pragmatism – yet not overt pessimism – of innovative futures. Within this configuration, not only might the NHS affiliate with technological advances but innovation pathways too could be more effectively moulded through clinical and patient insight.