| Sumario: | Purpose The aim is to provide an analytical framework for research on how governments frame and conceptualize trust in the context of AAL-technology. Method Literature/scoping review, conceptual analysis. Results & Discussion We propose a framework to increase the comparability of data on governmental trust in the context of AAL-technology. Governmental trust in AAL-technology, in this context, refers to cases where governmental agencies assert future-oriented policies promote such technologies, and entertain strong expectations about the putative positive effect of such policies, which are usually implemented through reforms. AAL-technology aims to preserve individual freedom of users/patients, and can be functionally categorized according to how the technology addresses social challenges related to an aging population (Helse-og omsorgsdepartementet, 2011). The question of how government express trust in AAL-technology is less documented in the literature than questions about how these technologies are framed among healthcare professionals, patients/users and various actors and institutions. To analyse how governmental agencies conceptualize and frame trust in AAL-technology, we propose a synthetic framework combining three theoretical approaches (Helse-og omsorgsdepartementet, 2011; Bouckaert, 2012; 3. Matland, 1995). The first component of our synthesis is Bouckaert's assertion that trust is not just something that just happens to governments, but something that governments can actively influence through their instruments and policies, and is usually manifested through reforms. Here, we define reforms as processes where governments implement changes involving interventions in institutionalized practices in the healthcare sector. These interventions may take the form of changing laws and regulations, in addition to changes in institutions and practices. The second component of the framework is adapted from the work of Wendt, Frisina and Rothgang, who offers a typology of healthcare systems. This typology is useful to explore critical aspects concerning how reforms that promote AAL-technology are executed in different healthcare systems, who the targets and beneficiaries are, and who is enlisted to carry out reforms. Building on Bouckart's suggestion that governmental trust (as expressed in policy documents), may be analyzed according to factors like reliability, responsiveness, openness and inclusiveness, fairness and integrity, we suggest that the analysis of governmental trust in AAL-technology requires adding a sixth dimension, namely ambiguity. Drawing on Matland' work we argue that ambiguity in governmental reform about the actual instruments of AAL implementation, can be interpreted as a proxy for low degrees of trust in the efficaciousness of technological interventions (OECD, 2013).
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