Enhancing the Dialogue between Science and Society: The Challenges of e-Health Care

Scholars have defined e-health as an emerging field which, by encompassing more than just “Internet and Medicine”, engages with public health, person centered health services and information delivered or enhanced through the Internet and Communication Technology (Lymberis, De Rossi, 2004). In a broader sense, the term invites debate not only on technical development, but also on a deeper commitment for raising awareness, promoting peer-to-peer communication, enhancing networking and interdisciplinarity, voicing patients’ experiences and, consequently, improving health care locally, regionally, and worldwide by using ICT (Eysenbach 2001).

Drawing upon the idea of Timmermans and Berg (2003), an orientation of “technology-in-practice” allows a critique by scholars in the social sciences regarding the complicated modalities in which the “social” and the “material” intertwine in technologies for health care, as well as possibly influencing their creation and implementation.

In this panel we welcome papers that investigate (1) how the social and health care aspects influence the development of the digital technology and (2) modalities through which the digital medium affects patients’ experiences and viewpoints, as well as the care process (Berg, 1998; Berg et al., 2003).

In particular, we are interested in research that can advance knowledge on the role of digital-based tools in monitoring and supporting patients’ wellbeing and/or studies that focus on enhancing the dialogue between science (healthcare and medical knowledge) and society (patients and families’ perspectives, vulnerable groups health seeking behaviors and so on) through the aid of digital technology.