Updated slides - presents a research agenda for critical digital health studies. Defines digital health, gives theoretical perspectives, outlines research questions and lists my current and future research projects in this area. Presented at the Australian National University, 14 May 2014.

1. CRITICAL DIGITAL HEALTH STUDIES:
A RESEARCH AGENDA
Deborah Lupton, News & Media Research Centre,
Faculty of Arts & Design, University
of Canberra
Twitter: @DALupton

2. Web 1.0
• one-way website use, little user content
creation, landline internet connections,
desktop and laptop computers
Web 2.0
• user-created content or commentary, social
networking sites, ubiquitous computing,
mobile devices, media convergence
Web 3.0
• interconnected 'smart objects' that can
communicate with each other, producing a
single interlinked database
From Web 1.0 to Web 3.0

3. What is digital health?
eHealth mHealth
Health 2.0 Medicine 2.0
digital
health

4. Digital health includes
digitised therapies, patient self-care + medical devices
public health surveillance (digital epidemiology)
health informatics – online patient records, triage + booking systems
diagnostic, genomic, risk assessment, decision-making tools
(online + apps)
health and medical platforms, blogs, websites + social media
health promotion strategies
voluntary self-tracking – quantified self, computer games

5. Health and medicine on Twitter

6. Patient support platforms

7. Wireless mobile health devices

8. Health vital monitoring patch

9. Sleep Shirt containing sensors to measure
movement for sleep apnoea detection

10. Self-tracking devices

11. Health and medical apps

15. Wearable tech

16. Digital epidemiology

17. A research agenda …
Critical digital health studies
• Challenging techno-utopia and solutionism
• Identifying the social, cultural, political and ethical
implications of digital health technologies

18. Evolution of a field of research
health
sociology
social
aspects of
HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS
metaphors
computer
viruses
computers,
selfhood &
the body
critical
digital
health
studies

19. critical
digital
health
science and
technology
studies
social science
of
medicine/public
health
surveillance
studies
media, cultural
and
communication
studies
the arts and
design

20. Research questions
• How do the news media cover digital health topics?
• What websites, platforms, social media sites and apps are
valued for health-related information, medical practice or
patient support?
• What kinds of content are created and shared by lay people via
social media platforms?
• What do corporate social platforms do with this content?
• Big data: privacy, web harvesting and commercialisation

21. Research questions
• In the face of techno-utopia, what are the lived
experiences of people using digital health technologies?
• Who to trust in the digital media world?

22. Research questions
• How are concepts of selfhood, health, illness, disease and
the body shaped through digital technology use?
• How are healthcare providers using digital technologies?
• How are professionals in health promotion and public
health using digital technologies?

23. Research questions
• What are the political dimensions and power relations
inherent in the use of these technologies?
• How will privacy be defined and experienced in the
context of these media?
• What are the implications for how people conduct their
everyday lives and social relationships?

24. Theoretical perspectives
• Sociomaterial approach
• The cyborg body/post-human body
• Forms of veillance: panoptic, synoptic, sous, participatory,
algorithmic, uber
• Data doubles/metric assemblages

25. Theoretical perspectives
• Domesticating technologies
• The medical gaze
• Prosumption
• Technology as performative (both software and hardware)

26. Recent + current research projects
• mapping the domain of critical digital health studies
• the commodification of patient experiences on digital
platforms
• sexuality and reproductive health apps
• medical diagnosis apps (with Annemarie Jutel)
• digital surveillance of children + the unborn
• experiences of self-tracking (with Glen Fuller)
• digitised tech in school physical + health education (with
Michael Gard)

27. Recent + current research projects
• use of digital tech by professionals in infectious disease
surveillance control (with Mike Michael)
• public understandings of big data (with Mike Michael)
• theorising the quantified self phenomenon
• big data in medicine and healthcare
• provocative responses to digital health technologies by
artists and designers

28. An artist’s response