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How medical technologies shape the experience of illness

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 di...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hofmann, Bjørn, Svenaeus, Fredrik
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5797484/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29397458
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40504-018-0069-y
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author Hofmann, Bjørn
Svenaeus, Fredrik
author_facet Hofmann, Bjørn
Svenaeus, Fredrik
author_sort Hofmann, Bjørn
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-57974842018-02-09 How medical technologies shape the experience of illness Hofmann, Bjørn Svenaeus, Fredrik Life Sci Soc Policy Research 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. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2018-02-03 /pmc/articles/PMC5797484/ /pubmed/29397458 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40504-018-0069-y Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Research
Hofmann, Bjørn
Svenaeus, Fredrik
How medical technologies shape the experience of illness
title How medical technologies shape the experience of illness
title_full How medical technologies shape the experience of illness
title_fullStr How medical technologies shape the experience of illness
title_full_unstemmed How medical technologies shape the experience of illness
title_short How medical technologies shape the experience of illness
title_sort how medical technologies shape the experience of illness
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5797484/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29397458
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40504-018-0069-y
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