The Role of Technology in Making Gender Count on the Health Information Highway

This paper focuses on how gender has been addressed in the health information highway. I examine the accessibility of online health information to women and the question of hip replacements and gender. I conclude that the health information highway obscures the social relations surrounding women's health.Cet article se concentre sur la facon dont les hommes et les femmes sont adresses sur 'autoroute de l'lnformation sur la sante. Il etudie l'accessibilite des renseignements sur la sante disponibles en ligne pour les femmes et la question du remplacement des hanches chez les hommes et chez les femmes. Je conclus que l'autoroute de l'information sur la sante obscure les relations sociales associees a la sante des femmes

Feminist Technology Assessment: Reflections On Theory And Practice

This paper explores the use of technology assessment as an approach to working with women in three contexts - unionized work settings, women's organizations interested in computer networking, and in a university classroom setting. A brief overview of technology assessment is presented, the three projects are described, and the successes and failures of each of the projects are discussed.Cet article explore I'emploi de l'evaluation par la technologie comme une approche pour travailler avec les femmes dans trois contextes: le milieu de travail syndique, les organismes de femmes interesses a etablir un reseau de relation par ordinateur, et dans une classe a l'universite. L'article donne un bref apercu de l'evaluation par la technologie, il decrit trois projets et discute des succes et des echecs de chaque projet

Operationalizing Personalized Medicine: Data Translation Practices in Bioinformatics Laboratories

This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of two genomics and bioinformatics labs. The focus of this research is on the day-to-day practices of using multiple technologies to integrate data across different platforms. We argue that sociotechnical challenges (including technical, contextual, and political challenges) emerge when data integration practices are carried out, due to the embedded nature of the important, yet unrecorded and implicit historical information that each dataset carries. We observed that sociotechnical sensemaking was common place in lab work, and was the only method for working out the complexity of the challenges which arose during data integration activities. We suggest that due attention be given to this matter, as challenges related to assessing data are likely to arise once more when such data travels back to the bedside, where it is poised to directly impact human health

Internet Devices and Desires: A Review of Randomized Controlled Trials of Interactive, Internet-mediated, In-home, Chronic Disease Monitoring Programs

Abstract:Background and Objectives: The advent of the Internet has made in-home monitoring a possibility for patients suffering from chronic disease, although few studies have examined this phenomena across different disease states. The goal of this review is to identify and evaluate studies where randomized control trials were used to evaluate Internet-mediated home monitoring systems designed to manage and support patients with chronic diseases.Methods and Results: We reviewed 454 abstracts of articles describing computerbased health interventions and read forty-three articles in depth. Seventeen articles met inclusion criteria and were selected for this review. Only completed randomized, controlled trials that reported physiological health outcomes of the intervention were included. Other results reviewed included the populations studied, the short and long term effectiveness of the interventions, costs and technology-related issues and health care provider communication. Internet-mediated home monitoring interventions appear to have some benefit for specific chronic diseases in specific circumstances. Few studies documented cost savings; none of those that did used consistent measures. Studies seldom addressed the challenges of introducing sophisticated interactive-monitoring systems into patients’ homes, the reasons for attrition from trials, or the effects of the intervention on the work of care providers or interprofessional practices.Conclusions: The interventions reviewed showed potential to enhance chronic disease management in some cases. However, the short duration of the studies made it difficult to generalize the results to wider home care settings or predict the effectiveness of such systems over the long and complicated courses of chronic diseases. Thus, despite hopes for significant cost and labour savings, Internet-mediated systems for monitoring chronic diseases in patients’ homes will likely complement rather than replace usual care