Critical digital health: promises and limitations

THE DIGITAL HEALTH PHENOMENON: PROMISES AND LIMITATIONS

Deborah LuptonFaculty of Arts & DesignUniversity of Canberra

A new research agenda

Critical digital health studies

• Challenging techno-utopia and solutionism• Identifying social, cultural, political and ethical implications of digital health

• Recognising both their promises and their limitations

Critical digital health studies: evolution of a research program

health sociology

social aspects of HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS metaphors

computer viruses

computers, selfhood & the body

critical digital health studies

Digital health includestelemedicine, telecare, diagnosis tools

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 for biometric data

Sensor-embedded trackers to ‘quantify the self”

Google Glass

Sexuality apps

Reproductive health apps

STD apps

Infectious disease monitoring + control

Google trends – AIDS searches

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

• 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?

• How are medical and public health professionals using digital media?

• How are concepts of the self, health, illness and the body configured and understood via digital tech?

• What are the positive and negative effects of digital health tech?

• How might socioeconomic disadvantage and social discrimination be alleviated or exacerbated by digital health tech?

My recent, current + planned critical digital health projects

• mapping the theoretical domain of critical digital health studies

• the commodification of patient experiences on digital platforms

• sexuality and reproductive health apps• medical diagnosis apps (with Annemarie Jutel)• digital surveillance of children + the unborn

Recent, current + planned critical digital health projects

• use of digital tech by professionals in infectious disease surveillance control (with Mike Michael)

• public understandings of big data (with Mike Michael)• the quantified self phenomenon• big data in medicine and healthcare• Google Glass – implications for medicine and public

health• provocative responses to health self-monitoring by artists

and designers

Theoretical perspectives

• The cyborg body/post-human body

• From the haptic to the optic

• Forms of surveillance via digital tech

• Code acts

• Algorithmic identities

Theoretical perspectives

• Domesticating technologies

• Prosumption

• Technology as performative

More information

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

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

• ‘Critical Digital Health Studies’ (Pinterest collection)