TY - JOUR
T1 - The Making of Self-Monitoring Asthma-Patients
T2 - Mending a Split Reality with Comparative Ethnography
AU - Langstrup, Henriette
AU - Winthereik, Brit Ross
N1 - Paper id:: 10.1163/156913308X306663
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Those calling for more evidence to support ever-increasing efforts to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in medical work argue that rigorous facts are necessary to make viable in practice substantiated use of these technologies. By contrast, socio-technical studies researchers, who focus on the use of ICT in everyday clinical practices, argue against the need for evidence produced under controlled, thus "unrealistic" conditions. Proponents of both positions, however, seem to operate with "a split reality," whereby they assume the "pseudo" can be readily distinguished from the "real," the "situated" from the "scientific." A comparative ethnographic approach can help mend this split reality approach. We compare how the same internet-based self-monitoring tool for asthmatics was used in a general practice setting and in a randomized clinical study, and thereby show how different effects were produced in these two settings. We propose that these effects are better conceptualized as enacting different assemblages of bodies, identities, and technologies, as opposed to creating either evidence or failed implementation.
AB - Those calling for more evidence to support ever-increasing efforts to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in medical work argue that rigorous facts are necessary to make viable in practice substantiated use of these technologies. By contrast, socio-technical studies researchers, who focus on the use of ICT in everyday clinical practices, argue against the need for evidence produced under controlled, thus "unrealistic" conditions. Proponents of both positions, however, seem to operate with "a split reality," whereby they assume the "pseudo" can be readily distinguished from the "real," the "situated" from the "scientific." A comparative ethnographic approach can help mend this split reality approach. We compare how the same internet-based self-monitoring tool for asthmatics was used in a general practice setting and in a randomized clinical study, and thereby show how different effects were produced in these two settings. We propose that these effects are better conceptualized as enacting different assemblages of bodies, identities, and technologies, as opposed to creating either evidence or failed implementation.
KW - Information and Communication Technologies
KW - Medical Work
KW - Socio-Technical Studies
KW - Ethnographic Approach
KW - Self-Monitoring Tool
KW - Clinical Practices
KW - Evidence-Based Medicine
KW - Assemblages
KW - Randomized Clinical Study
KW - General Practice
KW - Information and Communication Technologies
KW - Medical Work
KW - Socio-Technical Studies
KW - Ethnographic Approach
KW - Self-Monitoring Tool
KW - Clinical Practices
KW - Evidence-Based Medicine
KW - Assemblages
KW - Randomized Clinical Study
KW - General Practice
U2 - 10.1163/156913308X306663
DO - 10.1163/156913308X306663
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1569-1322
VL - 7
SP - 362
EP - 386
JO - Comparative Sociology
JF - Comparative Sociology
IS - 3
ER -