Saukko Paula
Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, UK.
Sociol Health Illn. 2018 Nov;40(8):1312-1326. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12774. Epub 2018 Jul 11.
This article argues that commercial digital health platforms and devices commodify participatory features of the digital creating a new medical cosmology. Drawing on sociology on medical cosmologies, research on digital media and marketing and an analysis of the 23andMe online genetic testing platform, I identify three features of this cosmology. First, digital health seeks to foment 'flow' or enjoyable, continuous immersion in health. Second, digital health configures its consumers as 'co-creators' of health data and knowledge together with companies and other consumers. Third, digital health frames medical knowledge as tentative, up for revision and scepticism by expert and lay science. The way in which digital health configures consumers as immersed, creative and sceptical gives it an open-ended and participatory air. However, the conceptual discussion and the analysis of the 23andMe platform highlight that these features represent commercial capture of the lifeworld, even if they appear radical against classical medical cosmologies.
本文认为，商业数字健康平台和设备将数字技术的参与性特征商品化，创造了一种新的医学宇宙观。借鉴医学宇宙观的社会学、数字媒体与营销研究以及对23andMe在线基因检测平台的分析，我确定了这种宇宙观的三个特征。首先，数字健康试图激发“心流”，即对健康的愉悦、持续沉浸。其次，数字健康将其消费者与公司及其他消费者共同塑造为健康数据和知识的“共同创造者”。第三，数字健康将医学知识框定为试探性的，有待专家和外行科学进行修订和质疑。数字健康将消费者塑造为沉浸其中、富有创造力且持怀疑态度的方式，赋予了它一种开放式和参与性的氛围。然而，概念性讨论以及对23andMe平台的分析表明，这些特征代表了对生活世界的商业捕获，即便它们相对于经典医学宇宙观显得激进。
