CRITICAL STUDIES OF DIGITAL HEALTH: A RESEARCH AGENDA

Deborah Lupton, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney

Web

1.0

• one-way website use, little user content creation, landline internet connections, desktop and laptop computers

Web

2.0

• user-created content or commentary, social networking sites, ubiquitous computing, mobile devices, media convergence

Web

3.0

• interconnected 'smart objects' that can communicate with each other, producing a single interlinked database

From Web 1.0 to Web 3.0

What is digital health?

• using Web 2.0 platforms -- Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, PatientsLikeMe, online news, blogs and wikis

• now moving towards Web 3.0 – the body as ‘node in the Internet of Things’

• mobile wireless and wearable computer technologies• embedded sensors in technologies• digital data collection on individuals and populations (‘big

data’)• digitised medical records

What is digital health?

eHealth mHealth

Health 2.0 Medicine 2.0

digital health

Digital health includes

telemedicine/telecare

public health surveillance

personalised medicine/patient engagement

health and medical platforms + websites

health promotion strategies

self-tracking (the quantified self)

iHealth digital blood pressure monitor

Health vital monitoring patch (heart rate, respiration rate, fall detection, stress, skin temperature, activity, calories burnt, body posture)

Sleep Shirt containing sensors to measure movement for sleep apnoea detection

Bodymetric trackers to ‘quantify the self”

Google Glass used in medicine and public health

critical digital health

science and technology

studies

social science of

medicine/public health

surveillance studies

media, cultural and communication studies

the arts and design

Research questions

• How do the news media cover digital health topics?

• What websites, platforms and apps are valued for health-related information or patient support?

• What kinds of content are created and shared by lay people via social media platforms?

• What do corporate social platforms do with this content?

Research questions

• In the face of techno-utopia, what are the lived experiences of people using digital health technologies?

• Who to trust in the digital media world?

Research questions

• How are concepts of ‘health’ and ‘the body’ shaped through digital technology use?

• How are healthcare providers using digital technologies?

• How are professionals in health promotion and public health using digital technologies?

Research questions

• What are the political dimensions and power relations inherent in the use of these technologies?

• How will privacy be defined and experienced in the context of these media?

• What are the implications for how people conduct their everyday lives and social relationships?

Theoretical perspectives

• The cyborg body/post-human body

• From the haptic to the optic

• Forms of surveillance: panoptic, synoptic, participatory, uberveillance

• Data doubles

Theoretical perspectives

• Domesticating technologies

• Prosumption

• Technology as performative

• The sociocultural dimensions of hardware and software

More information

• ‘Towards a critical sociology of digital health technologies’ (blog post)

• ‘Social aspects of digital media and health care’ (Scoop.it collection)