Warfarin as a materially and digitally informed drug

Abstract

This paper explores the material and digital culture of warfarin, one of the most commonly prescribed medications in the world. The paper uses the drug's 60 year history to describe its materiality and use, showing how and why it has become an informed material. Then, three ethnographic cases show where warfarin has produced and is now reproduced by, three types of information: NHS Trust guidelines; genetic codes and the INR (International Normalized Ratio). When a drug becomes so entangled with informational and digital technologies, it becomes reliant on them for its proper and safe use, it can no longer only be an informed material but is a digitally informed material.