by Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, on February 2nd, 2010 | 13 Comments »
I’m delighted to present my book: Health and the Network Society published by Ariel now available at the book stores. I perfectly know that it would not become a best-seller but I hope it could contribute just a little to foster new debates and further research on ICT and Health.Health systems are embedded within technological, economic, social and cultural changes of our current social structure: the network society. This book is based on empirical research about the transition of the Catalan health system towards the network society. The results show how the interaction between the technological, economic, organizational, social and cultural dimensions are facilitating the emergence of new profiles of citizens, patients and healthcare professionals. The determinants that shape these new profiles allow us to identify the inhibitors and drivers of Industrial healthcare systems towards the Network healthcare systems.
by Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, on November 29th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I have collected all the presentations in the same post to summarise the information. Thank you very much indeed to all the participants for these inspiring and wonderful days. I would like also to express my gratitude to Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) for its support.
Workshop: Innovative health technologies: health systems in transition Supported by: Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) Organized by: Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva (Internet Interdisciplinary
Institute –UOC) and Michael Hardey (Hull/York Medical School – Science and
Technology Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of York) Data: 26th and 27th November Place: Meeting room -1A , UOC IN3 building. Av. Canal Olímpic, s/n. Edifici B3,
08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona)
Organized by: Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute –UOC) and Michael Hardey (Hull/York Medical School – Science and Technology Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of York)
Daniel López presentation: Reframing telecare: an ethical discussion concerning ageing-in-place, independence and care.
Telecare has been presented by policy-makers and developers as a simple and cheap technology that enable ageing-in-place with autonomy. The aim of this presentation is to critically discuss what ageing-in-place with autonomy mean for elderly people using telecare. According to some results from ethnography conducted 4 years ago in a catalan telecare service, there are different ways of being autonomous enacted and, given that, also different conceptions of the body and of living at home. By presenting these complexities we want to put forward several ethical questions concerning the current telecare developments. First of all, what new arrangements, practices, collectives and relationships of care arise with the implementation of telecare and smart home systems in care for older people? How do these arrangements shape existing care practices? What definitions of care, and good care, are implied and embodied in the new care arrangements? How do these built-in definitions and normativities differ from and change existing practice? What implications do they have for the meanings of place, distance and home in care? These questions, among other, are being discussed in a FP7 project currently carried out by different research teams in Barcelona, Lancaster, Amsterdam and Oslo and coordinated by Maggie Mort. So in order to conclude, I would like to present these questions and make some remarks based on some insights taken from the current fieldwork and from the former research projects.
Daniel López
Assistant Professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Currently working on the implementation of new technologies in care settings like Home Telecare from an STS perspective. The main areas of interest are: a) the emergence of new spatialities and temporalities of care; b) the emergence of new practices of caring and security due to the increasing importance of technologies of accountability; and c) the enactment of hybrid forms of autonomy and independence. Currently involved in an FP7 project called “Ethical Frameworks for Telecare Technologies for older people at home (EFORTT) concerned with the implications of the introduction of remote care technologies worn, installed or embedded in the homes of older citizens/frail older people (see http://www.lancs.ac.uk/efortt/index.html) and also a project funded by the Ministerio called CONDEPCIU concerned with the techno-scientific controversies around the new Spanish care policies addressed to elderly/frail people.
Organized by: Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute –UOC) and Michael Hardey (Hull/York Medical School – Science and Technology Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of York)
Laura Machin’s presentation - Cord blood banking: initial observations
In recent years, the collection and storage of biological resources and data has commanded considerable attention in public policy debate and amongst social scientists interested in potentially new forms of regulatory, ethical and political economy. Much of this attention has focused upon public sector initiatives, such as UK Biobank and the UK Stem Cell Bank, but those less well researched are the emerging forms of commercial and private banking. In particular, are cord blood stem cell banks offering parents the possibility of paying to deposit cord blood stem cells taken at birth. Alongside commercial banks is the public sector banking, which emerged after the first cord blood stem cell transplant in 1988. Both instances raise questions around new forms of consumption, parental responsibility and the changing balances between public and commercial bioscience. In this presentation, I will introduce the aims and objectives of this 2-year project, titled ‘the political and moral economy of cord blood banking’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. I will also discuss cord blood banking in its current context and present some initial observations from the data collected during the past 10 months.
Laura Machin
Researcher at Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU), University of York. Currently working on the umbilical cord blood banking project and the social and ethical context of embryo donation (to other couples for fertility treatment or stem cell research). Generally, I am interested in the social, ethical, historical aspects of assisted conception techniques - specifically, the roles/notions of the patient/consumer/patient groups, the relationships between and within professions (sociology of professions / boundary-work) and the evolving notion of the family (sociology of the family). I am also keen to develop my policy interests in childbirth and maternity services, and infertility counselling.
Organized by: Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute –UOC) and Michael Hardey (Hull/York Medical School – Science and Technology Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of York)
Michael Morrison’s presentation - ‘Measuring Innovation - a brief introduction to the REMEDiE project’
In this presentation I will introduce my current work on the Regenerative Medicine in Europe (REMEDiE) project. I aim to describe how we have set about trying to measure and assess European commercial activity in regenerative medicine - including stem cells, gene therapy and tissue engineering. I will discuss some of the difficulties we faced in finding ways to appropriately measure this activity in line with the goals of the work package and provide some details of the different approaches we have employed so far. Much of what I discuss is work in progress so I hope to get some useful and stimulating feedback.
Michael Morrison
Currently working on the FP-7 funded REMEDiE project at the Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU) at York, investigating the networks of commercial innovation in regenerative medicine with a specific focus on European biotechnology. Other research interests include the emergence of new (bio)medical technologies and associated issues including, social shaping of technologies, history of medicine and medical technology, and
(sociology of) bioethics, especially with regards to human enhancement and the commercial application(s) of human tissue-derived products.
Organized by: Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute –UOC) and Michael Hardey (Hull/York Medical School – Science and Technology Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of York)
Andrew Webster’s presentation -Innovation in health: a social science perspective
This presentation offers a brief account of the ways in which innovation, and more specifically medical innovation, can be understood from within a social science perspective, illustrating the ways in which innovation has to be seen as an articulation of both old and new assemblages, the broad range of socio-technical relations that make it possible and indeed workable. In light of this discussion, the paper goes on to raise a number of issues that need to be addressed in future policy and practice contexts, relating to the take-up, choice, evaluation and globalisation of innovation.
Andrew Webster
Professor Andrew Webster is Director of the Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU), and Head of Department of Sociology at the University of York. He was Director of the £5m ESRC/MRC Innovative Health Technologies Programme, is member of various national Boards and Committees (including the UK Stem Cell Bank Steering Committee and UK National Stem Cell Network Steering Committee) and was Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons Health Select Committee. He is national co-ordinator the ESRC’s £3.5m Stem Cells Initiative (2005-9), and was a member of the Royal Society’s Expert Working Group on Health Informatics. He is currently undertaking externally funded research on stem cells as well as the implementation of pharmacogenetics into clinical practice, and is coordinating a new European (EC) grant on Regenerative Medicine (REMEDiE). He is Co-Editor of the Health Technology and Society Series: Palgrave Macmillan (launched at the Royal Society, October 25 2006). His most recent book is Health, Technology and Society: A Sociological Critique (Palgrave Macmillan) 2007. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in 2006.
Organized by: Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute –UOC) and Michael Hardey (Hull/York Medical School – Science and Technology Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of York)
Digital technologies and the Internet are increasingly changing how people understand their health, how health care is organised and delivered to patients and opening up new scientific approaches and innovations. For example, health care records are being digitised and made available though various devices to users in most nations with a centralised health care system. Developments in genetics, imaging technologies, cloning and stem cell research are changing how health is understood and the treatments available to individuals. Such changes in the organisation of health and medical knowledge are increasingly engaging with the public through information that is made available on the Internet.
The Internet is now a vast repository of information about health and well-being. Supported by Web 2.0 resources, the Internet has increasingly included information about health, illness and lifestyles provided by individuals. As more of the public become connected through computers and mobile devices new opportunities are created for the publication of health information and advice. However, the diversity of health information raises questions about quality and the impact incorrect or poor information may have on individuals. There is already evidence that the doctor-patient relationship is changing in the face of developments in Information and Communications Technologies. In addition, while people are the advice people may choose to follow may not necessarily result in health behaviours. For example, men defined as obese may share information available on the Internet to remain ‘big and fat’ despite medical advice to the contrary.
The desire to provide a seamless inter-agency service built around the needs of individual people (and more broadly clients and patients of national health and welfare services) is a common aspiration in most countries with a centralised welfare system. Developments in Telecare have seen the growth of ‘smart homes’ that enable people to live safely at home through various monitoring and intervention systems. Such monitoring devices are also being used by people in pursuit of healthy bodies through exercise. The iPod or iPhone can, for example, be used to monitor running and other physical activity. These technologies raise questions to do with the privacy and ownership of information. In other words information technology has become both directly and indirectly part of everyday life for many people and those who play a part in their lives.
In this broad context, the aim of this workshop is seeking to understand how, for whom and to what extend changes in the material conditions of health information and communication is transforming the generation of medical knowledge, the conception of health and the demand and provision of healthcare delivery.
To reach this aim, the workshop is organized in discussion sessions where social researchers will present their recent research results, methodologies and experiences with enough time for rich interaction among the participants.
Michael Hardey - Consuming professions: user-review websites and health services
Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva and Michael Hardey - Health professionals, the Internet and Internet informed patients
13:30 – 15:00 Lunch
15:00 – 16:00 Conclusions of the workshop
Thanks indeed to the participants, to IN3 for the support and to Laura Vidal for her wonderful organization work. See also information available at IN3.
I have to thanks all the people who were there for their questions and comments. Special thanks to Michael Hardey who helps me to improve the statistics labels. Now we have to keep working on some papers using these analysis.
From “Disconnected Citizen to “Networked Citizen”
From “Utilized ICT physicians” to “Integrated ICT Physicians”
Of course, any comment or suggestion will be very welcomed indeed
by Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, on June 11th, 2009 | No Comments »
I just want to share my presentation “Healthcare system 2.0: from industrial healthcare to network healthcare”. It could be also entitled “From information to interaction, from citizen to networked citizen, from physicians to networked physicianas… Healthcare in transition to Network Society”. I have to congratulate Kroniker, Sanidad 2.0 and Healthcare Department of Euskadi, specially Dr. Rafael Bengoa, for their wonderful job as organizers and support of the conference.
My presentation was based on a research carried out in Catalonia. Our analysis suggests a transition from industrial healthcare system to network healthcare systems with clear gaps and divides:
From plane and low quality health web pages (more than 50% of the 1240 web pages analysed) to interactive health websites (just 5% of them)
From excluded citizens who do not have access to ICT, do not use the Internet and do not care about them, to network citizens, who have access to many ICT devices and use the Internet to read/write, share ideas and socialize.
From traditional physicians (70%) to network physicians (30%), who use Hospital Information System intensively, who use the Internet to spread information, to search national and international research information, to communicate with patients and healthcare professionals to sum up the Internet is embedded on their work routines as interactive space.
As you have already noticed the presentation is in Spanish. I have translated the last two slides. The first one summarizes the drivers of this transition from citizens and healthcare professionals point of view:
by Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, on March 22nd, 2009 | No Comments »
Lately I haven’t posted because I have been developing my thesis site to spread the results of the research. The site is in Spanish and the discussion will be in Spanish too. Here goes the video of my presentation (it’s also in Spanish if somebody likes to subtitle it, will be very welcome).
I’m sorry but I do not have enough time to translate the whole document, but I have started to write some papers in English so soon I’ll be sharing some parts of them for a kind of peer review taking into account the restrictions of the Journals.
