Designing a diagnosis? Reflections on design, medicalization, and mild cognitive impairment (MCI)

Abstract

Medicalization refers to the process by which ordinary human problems and experiences—such as depression, anxiety, addiction, and child hyperactivity—come to be defined and treated as distinct medical conditions. The growing influence of Western medicine (or ‘biomedicine’) in contemporary society has had a profound impact on people’s understanding of what it means to be ‘normal’, how they conceptualize and respond to illness, and perhaps even their understanding of life itself. Despite the increasing number of products, services, and interventions that extend the reach of medicine into everyday life, the concept of medicalization has received surprisingly little attention in the design literature. This article presents a single case study, a web design project called ‘Living Well with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)’, to provoke discussion around how design processes and practices are sometimes embroiled in the construction of new medical diagnoses, and the implications this might have for the emerging field of design for health. The research found that the website helped legitimize the MCI diagnosis by giving it form, despite ongoing debates about its use and validity in clinical practice.