Compatibility in multiplicity: Towards a complex understanding of medical devices use

The World Health Organization recognizes medical devices as one health technology. However, a medical device, by itself, is not enough to be considered a health technology in a broader sense: it becomes part of a useful specific health technology when it is used, when a medical procedure is enacted, when it interacts appropriately with other actors like different medical devices, healthcare staff, patients, healthcare institution, providers, norms, etc. This “appropriate interaction” may be called compatibility, and a “non-appropriate interaction” may be called incompatibility.