Abstract
In this article we explore how diagnostic and therapeutic technologies shape the lived experiences of illness for patients. By analysing a wide range of examples, we identify six ways that technology can (trans)form the experience of illness (and health). First, technology may create awareness of disease by revealing asymptomatic signs or markers (imaging techniques, blood tests). Second, the technology can reveal risk factors for developing diseases (e.g., high blood pressure or genetic tests that reveal risks of falling ill in the future). Third, the technology can affect and change an already present illness experience (e.g., the way blood sugar measurement affects the perceived symptoms of diabetes). Fourth, therapeutic technologies may redefine our experiences of a certain condition as diseased rather than unfortunate (e.g. assisted reproductive technologies or symptom based diagnoses in psychiatry). Fifth, technology influences illness experiences through altering social-cultural norms and values regarding various diagnoses. Sixth, technology influences and changes our experiences of being healthy in contrast and relation to being diseased and ill. This typology of how technology forms illness and related conditions calls for reflection regarding the phenomenology of technology and health. How are medical technologies and their outcomes perceived and understood by patients? The phenomenological way of approaching illness as a lived, bodily being-in-the-world is an important approach for better understanding and evaluating the effects that medical technologies may have on our health, not only in defining, diagnosing, or treating diseases, but also in making us feel more vulnerable and less healthy in different regards.
Highlights
Medical technologies strongly influence the way doctors encounter and treat patients and how they understand their ailments and complaints
The objective of this study is to investigate how illness is formed by technology, i.e., how our experiences of our bodies are shaped by the application of technologies in health care
By studying a series of examples, we have developed a typology of how illness experience can be shaped by technology
Summary
Medical technologies strongly influence the way doctors encounter and treat patients and how they understand their ailments and complaints. This is true regarding the patients themselves: the new technologies affect the way patients think about and perceive their health condition. The effects of medical technologies are not limited to what occurs in hospitals or health care centres, the effects are the result of how information about new diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities is disseminated via traditional and social media and, sold and used on direct consumer basis (diagnostic tests). This paper investigates in some detail how medical technologies shape the experience of illness and related conditions. One way in which therapeutic technologies may affect illness experiences is to relieve or eliminate symptoms. Sometimes technologies even appear to create illness when persons refocus their attention on experiences they had heretofore considered nonsignificant
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
