Technology and the Experience of Illness

• Health, Technology and Society
• Lecture 4 Technology and the Experience of Illness

Topics

• Technology and Innovation
• Theories and the linkages with theories
• Patient-Doctor relationship under the rise of technology

Intersection of Technology and Illness

• Genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
• Precision agriculture
• Industrial farming techniques
• Food processing technologies

Technology Fosters Efficiency

• It is the accomplishment of a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort
• Mechanistic organization is an example
• These practices have values and functions
• Centralized decision making is possible
• Such a direction can work well in stable, simple environments

Discussion Points

• Should food technology be viewed positively for feeding more people at lower prices?
• Concerns exist regarding labor practices in meatpacking plants with immigrant populations
• Considerations of improvements in labor practices in the meat industry
• The ability to make choices in food purchases is not possible for everyone
• Considering what actions can be taken to enact change
• The need for changes that people want to see made in the food industry after watching a film
• Why food companies that promote unhealthy foods have been compared to the tobacco industry
• Processed food's health, social, and environmental costs and if it should continue to be a major part of the daily diet
• Whether consumers hold the power to create more ethical practices in the food industry
• Is it ethical for people involved in the food industry to influence or implement food policies?
• Considering who you would want to drive the change in the food industry - consumers, the government, producers, or supermarkets/retailers

Innovation

• Is an essence for the betterment of technology
• It is the process of creation and application of new ideas resulting in the development of goods and services
• Creative work is more concerned with ideas, whereas innovative work is more concerned with products and outcomes

Ambidextrous Organization

• Is new, exploratory units from traditional, exploitative ones.
• Different processes, structures, and cultures are allowed.
• Maintains tight links across units at the senior executive level at the same time.
• Improves flexibility in order to explore new territory
• Cross-fertilization enables fledgling units to share important resources from traditional units at the managerial level
• It ensures the new units' distinctive processes, structures, and culture aren't overwhelmed by the forces of "business as usual."
• Organizations still face difficulties in managing exploitation and exploration at the same time, as the two tend to drive out each other
• Organizations that can combine exploitation and exploration are considered ambidextrous
• Organizations that firms that succeed in the long run balance exploitation and exploration
• It has long been recognized that firms can fulfill immediate market needs and adapt to future trends

Challenges and Future in Implementing Ambidexterity

• Case studies include, IBMS Transformation and Tesla

Michel Foucault 1926-1984

• He is a very influential sociological thinker of the last half century
• Key contributions to criminology focus on how the nature of crime control shifted from violence and fear of punishment to surveillance and fear of being seen doing something wrong
• Punishment changed from a violent public spectacle
• Identity isn't fixed; it's shaped by society and culture and shows up in institutions like schools and workplaces
• Self-identification is how someone sees their gender can be influenced by society
• Disciplinary power are places that monitor and influence behavior
• Power creates knowledge and sets norms, including bio-power that focuses on regulating health and reproduction
• Medical standards is how medical professionals define healthy, which influences choices
• Social media and government monitoring can dictate how we act in public with surveillance

Biopolitics

• Focuses on how the state controls population health and identity
• Normalizing certain behaviors include public health initiatives
• Public health campaigns (vaccination and health education) keep communities healthy
• Population policies (family planning) influence personal choices

Foucault's Concept of Power and Organizational Innovation

• Case Study: 3M's Innovation Culture

Technologies of the Self in Innovation Management

• Case Study: Adobe's Kickbox Innovation Program

Identity and Innovation in Ambidextrous Organizations

• Case Study: Fujifilm's transformation

Biopolitics and Corporate Innovation Strategies

• Case Study: Google's Employee Wellness Programs

Discourse, Knowledge, and Innovation in Organizations

• Case Study: Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation

Approaches to Ethical Decision Making

• Five factors have been suggested by many ethicists and philosophers to base ethical standards
• They include the utilitarian, rights, justice, virtue and common-good approaches approaches
• These are the five universal approaches to ethical decision making

New Direction: Demanding a Good Death

• Terminal care emphasizes palliation and relief of a patient's physical, emotional and spiritual suffering
• Hospice is to relieve symptoms, not treat the underlying conditions.
• The goal is best quality of life for their families and for patients
• Hospice care can be provided on an inpatient or outpatient basis
• Outpatient hospice care enables patients to die at home with visiting doctors and nurses

A Consumerist Model of Patient-Doctor Relationship

• The patient-doctor relationship is just like a relationship between a customer and a seller
• Patients are informed and can make choices
• Patients contribute to the decision-making process.
• Patients and doctors are equal partners

Future Trends in Patient-Doctor Relationships

• Patients have increasing access to medical information and Internet medicine
• Focus on bridging the Digital divide
• Doctors practice more respect for patients' autonomy
• There is also an increasing number of women doctors
• Technology may lead to the rise of Tele-medicine

Illness narrative

• Narrative is a discourse of a sequence of temporally related events connected in a meaningful way for a particular audience
• Can be used to make sense of the world and people's experiences in it
• Focuses attention on everyday life, including the experiences, speeches, purposes and expectations of agents
• When patients cant provide a full picture, technology is a good foundation for the collection of factual data and information.

Illness Experience

• It considers people's everyday lives living with and in spite of illness.
• Focuses on the meaning of illness, social organization of the sufferer's world and the strategies used in adaption

Understanding the experience of the Chronically Ill

• Patients should be the focus of study over the medical establishment
• Emphasis should be on patient's agency, how they choose to make active decisions in their strategies for a meaningful life
• The elements of patients' biography should be taken into consideration
• Attention should be shifted from the undesirability of illness to being successfully ill
• This process will lead to the full use of technology

Barriers to Effective Communication

• Different understanding of being ill
• Social Distance
• Gender dynamics
• Cultural differences

Illness Experience: Chronic Illness

• People mostly live with chronic conditions rather than die from them
• Referred to as the remission society
• Chronic illness has a fluctuating course (illness trajectory) and is defined by uncertain outcomes
• Patients may have a better grasp of their chronic conditions than their doctors.
• Healthcare is only one of several approaches to coping with chronic conditions
• Technology is a new platform to aid with the illness experience

Technology, in a nutshell

• Technology or machine cannot be understood in isolation
• The machine is not divorced from its larger social pattern
• Technology is a tangible object with skills that humans develop a feel about
• It allows humans to develop social evolution of the species

Future World: Utopia or Dystopia

• Technological Utopia is the belief that technology can achieve a 'perfect' society
• It enhances the quality of life, like communication
• Technological Dystopia is oppressive societal control and inhibition of humanity
• Power is with the control of "invasive" technology
• Illusion of a perfect society are maintained through technological control

Summary

• The future of biotech and infotech promises to reshape every aspect of life, shaking humanity
• Some call AI "the last innovation of humanity"
• Believed longevity is a technical problem where people can "buy" life and "upgrade" their bodies
• Prepare for and not fear the future