Hofmann Bjørn, Svenaeus Fredrik
Institute for the health sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Gjøvik, Norway.
Centre of Medical Ethics, University of Oslo, PO Box 1130, Blindern, N-0318, Oslo, Norway.
Life Sci Soc Policy. 2018 Feb 3;14(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s40504-018-0069-y.
In this article we explore how diagnostic and therapeutic technologies shape the lived experiences of illness for patients. By analysing a wide range of examples, we identify six ways that technology can (trans)form the experience of illness (and health). First, technology may create awareness of disease by revealing asymptomatic signs or markers (imaging techniques, blood tests). Second, the technology can reveal risk factors for developing diseases (e.g., high blood pressure or genetic tests that reveal risks of falling ill in the future). Third, the technology can affect and change an already present illness experience (e.g., the way blood sugar measurement affects the perceived symptoms of diabetes). Fourth, therapeutic technologies may redefine our experiences of a certain condition as diseased rather than unfortunate (e.g. assisted reproductive technologies or symptom based diagnoses in psychiatry). Fifth, technology influences illness experiences through altering social-cultural norms and values regarding various diagnoses. Sixth, technology influences and changes our experiences of being healthy in contrast and relation to being diseased and ill. This typology of how technology forms illness and related conditions calls for reflection regarding the phenomenology of technology and health. How are medical technologies and their outcomes perceived and understood by patients? The phenomenological way of approaching illness as a lived, bodily being-in-the-world is an important approach for better understanding and evaluating the effects that medical technologies may have on our health, not only in defining, diagnosing, or treating diseases, but also in making us feel more vulnerable and less healthy in different regards.
在本文中，我们探讨诊断和治疗技术如何塑造患者患病的实际体验。通过分析大量实例，我们确定了技术能够（转）变疾病（及健康）体验的六种方式。首先，技术可通过揭示无症状体征或标志物（成像技术、血液检测）来提高对疾病的认知。其次，技术能够揭示疾病发展的风险因素（例如，高血压或揭示未来患病风险的基因检测）。第三，技术会影响并改变已然存在的疾病体验（例如，血糖测量影响对糖尿病症状的感知方式）。第四，治疗技术可能会将我们对某种状况的体验重新定义为患病而非不幸（例如，辅助生殖技术或精神病学中基于症状的诊断）。第五，技术通过改变有关各种诊断的社会文化规范和价值观来影响疾病体验。第六，技术在与患病和生病的对比及关联中影响并改变我们对健康的体验。这种关于技术如何形成疾病及相关状况的类型学要求我们对技术与健康的现象学进行反思。患者如何看待和理解医疗技术及其结果？将疾病视为一种活生生的、身体处于世界之中的现象学方法，是更好地理解和评估医疗技术可能对我们健康产生的影响的重要途径，这不仅体现在定义、诊断或治疗疾病方面，还体现在让我们在不同方面感觉更脆弱、更不健康方面。
