Sociology Department, Center for Science, Technology and Society, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Sociol Health Illn. 2019 Oct;41 Suppl 1:147-161. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12871.
Smart textile medical devices are forms of clothing that use sensors and fabrics to monitor bodily processes and communicate with data systems through wireless transmission. To investigate the co-evolution of digital technologies and health care practices, this study draws on focus group and fieldwork data to analyse the sociological implications of the creation of two smart textile devices: one - the bellyband - will replace the tocodynamometer and foetal heart rate monitor during labour and birth in hospitals and the other - the babyband - will replace the cardiopulmonary monitor in neonatal intensive care units. Analysis of potential users' views of smart textiles demonstrates the contemporary contours of medicalisation and surveillance medicine. Smart textiles blur the boundary between hospital/medicine and home/daily life. In this blurring, medicalisation becomes "cozy" or "comfortable" and surveillance takes on a friendly form. Smart textile medical devices thus fit into broader trends in health care in which hospitals are designed to be homelike and intimate even as patients and devices become fully integrated into data systems.
智能纺织品医疗设备是一种利用传感器和织物来监测身体过程并通过无线传输与数据系统进行通信的服装。为了研究数字技术和医疗保健实践的共同演变，本研究利用焦点小组和实地调查数据来分析两种智能纺织品的创造所带来的社会学影响：一种是腹带，它将在医院的分娩和生产过程中取代胎儿监护仪和胎心监护器；另一种是婴儿带，它将在新生儿重症监护病房取代心肺监护器。对潜在用户对智能纺织品的看法进行分析，展示了当代医学化和监控医学的轮廓。智能纺织品模糊了医院/医学和家庭/日常生活之间的界限。在这种模糊化中，医学化变得“舒适”或“舒适”，监控呈现出友好的形式。因此，智能纺织医疗设备符合医疗保健领域的更广泛趋势，即医院设计得更像家，更亲密，即使患者和设备完全融入数据系统。
