TY - JOUR
T1 - Telemedicine and the senses
T2 - a review
AU - Lupton, Deborah
AU - Maslen, Sarah
N1 - © 2017 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.
PY - 2017/10/25
Y1 - 2017/10/25
N2 - Telemedicine technologies have been presented as solutions to the challenges of equitable, cost-effective and efficient health service provision for over two decades. The ways in which the sensory dimensions of medical care and the doctor-patient relationship are mediated via telemedicine can be important contributors to the success, failure or unintended consequences of telemedicine. In this article, we present a review of the relevant literature in social research that provides insights into the sensory dimensions of telemedicine. In addition to considering important relevant work undertaken in the sociology of health and illness, we incorporate perspectives and research from other disciplines and fields that we believe can contribute to the development of scholarship on this topic. We contend that when doctors, patients and other healthcare workers enact telemedicine, sensory judgements have become, in part, a sensing of sensors. Viewing healthcare practitioners and patients as always and already digital data assemblages of flesh-code-space-place-affect-senses, demanding certain kinds of body work and data sense-making, constitutes a productive theoretical approach for future enquiries into telemedicine and other digital health technologies.
AB - Telemedicine technologies have been presented as solutions to the challenges of equitable, cost-effective and efficient health service provision for over two decades. The ways in which the sensory dimensions of medical care and the doctor-patient relationship are mediated via telemedicine can be important contributors to the success, failure or unintended consequences of telemedicine. In this article, we present a review of the relevant literature in social research that provides insights into the sensory dimensions of telemedicine. In addition to considering important relevant work undertaken in the sociology of health and illness, we incorporate perspectives and research from other disciplines and fields that we believe can contribute to the development of scholarship on this topic. We contend that when doctors, patients and other healthcare workers enact telemedicine, sensory judgements have become, in part, a sensing of sensors. Viewing healthcare practitioners and patients as always and already digital data assemblages of flesh-code-space-place-affect-senses, demanding certain kinds of body work and data sense-making, constitutes a productive theoretical approach for future enquiries into telemedicine and other digital health technologies.
KW - care work
KW - e-health
KW - embodiment
KW - medical knowledge
KW - medical practice/medical work
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85032279630&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1467-9566.12617
DO - 10.1111/1467-9566.12617
M3 - Article
C2 - 29071731
SN - 0141-9889
VL - 39
SP - 1557
EP - 1571
JO - Sociology of Health and Illness
JF - Sociology of Health and Illness
IS - 8
ER -