CRITICAL DIGITAL HEALTH STUDIES: A RESEARCH AGENDA

Deborah Lupton, News & Media Research Centre, Faculty of Arts & Design, University

of Canberra

Twitter: @DALupton

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?

eHealth mHealth

Health 2.0 Medicine 2.0

digital health

Digital health includes

digitised therapies, patient self-care + medical devices

public health surveillance (digital epidemiology)

health informatics – online patient records, triage + booking systems

diagnostic, genomic, risk assessment, decision-making tools (online + apps)

health and medical platforms, blogs, websites + social media

health promotion strategies

voluntary self-tracking – quantified self, computer games

Health and medicine on Twitter

Patient support platforms

Wireless mobile health devices

Health vital monitoring patch

Sleep Shirt containing sensors to measure movement for sleep apnoea detection

Self-tracking devices

Health and medical apps

Wearable tech

Digital epidemiology

A research agenda …

Critical digital health studies

• Challenging techno-utopia and solutionism• Identifying the social, cultural, political and ethical

implications of digital health technologies

Evolution of a field of research

health sociology

social aspects of HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS metaphors

computer viruses

computers, selfhood & the body

critical digital health studies

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, social media sites and apps are valued for health-related information, medical practice 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?

• Big data: privacy, web harvesting and commercialisation

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 selfhood, health, illness, disease 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

• Sociomaterial approach

• The cyborg body/post-human body

• Forms of veillance: panoptic, synoptic, sous, participatory, algorithmic, uber

• Data doubles/metric assemblages

Theoretical perspectives

• Domesticating technologies

• The medical gaze

• Prosumption

• Technology as performative (both software and hardware)

Recent + current research projects

• mapping the 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• experiences of self-tracking (with Glen Fuller)• digitised tech in school physical + health education (with

Michael Gard)

Recent + current research projects

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

• public understandings of big data (with Mike Michael)• theorising the quantified self phenomenon• big data in medicine and healthcare• provocative responses to digital health technologies by

artists and designers

An artist’s response