Routledge International Handbook of Critical Issues in Health and Illness

Abstract

What can be observed under the notion of digital health? What are the key arguments that shift public and private sector investments towards digital health innovation? And, what kind of theoretical approaches enable us to disentangle the complexities and ambivalences at play when digital technologies are embedded in practices of health and medicine? This chapter provides an overview of the area of digital health, first examining some of the key developments since 1980s and the promissory discourse that often accompanies these developments. It then offers critiques of such promissory discourse at two levels. First, it introduces the social theories that seek to explain the societal consequences of digitalisation and the arising health data economies. Second, it presents the more empirically-driven sociotechnical approaches that have sought to understand the situated character of digital health. Following this, a sociotechnical lens is used to identify three central aspects of digitalisation that are then explored in detail: quantification, connectivity and instantaneity. Using examples from different case studies, an argument is made for how digitalisation is associated with three types of the (re)configuration of healthcare: in knowledge about health and illness, in relationships between patients and healthcare professionals and in new forms of control shifted between technologies and human agents in practices of care. Overall, the chapter aims to provide the reader with important theoretical concepts to approach the study of digital health and its potential benefits and drawbacks across different social situations.

Against the odds: exploring individuals’ pushback mechanisms against commercialized football gambling

“…Individuals' motivation and their ability to gamble involve both their susceptibility and structural influences such as the commercialisation of sports gambling, particularly gambling marketing (15)(16)(17), which also involves covert marketing (18,19), all of which has led to an unprecedented increase in gambling behavior and addictions in recent years (20)(21)(22)(23)(24). The gambling industry engages in a series of promotional marketing activities, such as free bets, percentage on deposits, promotional codes, cashback, live cash-outs, football sponsorship, and much more.…”

Misophonia matters: A case study of the role of brain imaging in debates over new diagnoses

“…In this article, we examine misophonia as a case study of the use of brain imaging to establish and validate new diagnoses, specifically by highlighting the role of advanced technology and neuro-reductionism in the redefinition of symptoms into new diagnostic categories. The theoretical and epistemological foundations for our analysis are the social construction of medical knowledge, the social model of diagnosis and (bio)medicalisation (Brown, 1995;Clarke et al, 2003;Conrad, 2005;Conrad & Barker, 2010;Jutel, 2011Jutel, , 2019Jutel, , 2022. At the nexus of these ideas is the centrality of diagnosis in the construction of medical knowledge and the mutually reinforcing relationship between the two (Brown, 1995), as well as the conceptual union of the social construction of medical knowledge and medicalisation (Conrad & Barker, 2010).…”

"Fast food psychology" or serious support: Brazilian migrant women talk about their experiences with digital tools for mental health in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…One way of conducting health research more critically is to underpin research with theories such as Intersectionality Theory (Chamberlain & Lyons, 2022). This theory was developed by a critical feminist scholar, Kimberlé Crenshaw, in the 1980s and analyses oppression by understanding how different layers of multiple identities present additional challenges to the individual (Crenshaw, 2017).…”