Materiality, health informatics and the limits of knowledge production

Robertson, H; Nicholas, N; Rosenfeld, T; Travaglia, JF

Materiality, health informatics and the limits of knowledge production

Robertson, H

Nicholas, N Rosenfeld, T Travaglia, JF

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Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2014, 446 pp. 132 - 148
Issue Date:: 2014-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Robertson, H https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0251-7682	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Nicholas, N	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Rosenfeld, T	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Travaglia, JF https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7537-0466	en_US
dc.date.issued	2014-01-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2014, 446 pp. 132 - 148	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	9783662457078	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1868-4238	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/121030
dc.description.abstract	© IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2014 Contemporary societies increasingly rely on complex and sophisticated information systems for a wide variety of tasks and, ultimately, knowledge about the world in which we live. Those systems are central to the kinds of problems our systems and sub-systems face such as health and medical diagnosis, treatment and care. While health information systems represent a continuously expanding field of knowledge production, we suggest that they carry forward significant limitations, particularly in their claims to represent human beings as living creatures and in their capacity to critically reflect on the social, cultural and political origins of many forms of data ‘representation’. In this paper we take these ideas and explore them in relation to the way we see healthcare information systems currently functioning. We offer some examples from our own experience in healthcare settings to illustrate how unexamined ideas about individuals, groups and social categories of people continue to influence health information systems and practices as well as their resulting knowledge production. We suggest some ideas for better understanding how and why this still happens and look to a future where the reflexivity of healthcare administration, the healthcare professions and the information sciences might better engage with these issues. There is no denying the role of health informatics in contemporary healthcare systems but their capacity to represent people in those datascapes has a long way to go if the categories they use to describe and analyse human beings are to produce meaningful knowledge about the social world and not simply to replicate past ideologies of those same categories.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology	en_US
dc.title	Materiality, health informatics and the limits of knowledge production	en_US
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
utslib.citation.volume	446	en_US
utslib.for	1117 Public Health and Health Services	en_US
utslib.for	0806 Information Systems	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Health
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CHSP - Health Services and Practice
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	446	en_US

Abstract:

© IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2014 Contemporary societies increasingly rely on complex and sophisticated information systems for a wide variety of tasks and, ultimately, knowledge about the world in which we live. Those systems are central to the kinds of problems our systems and sub-systems face such as health and medical diagnosis, treatment and care. While health information systems represent a continuously expanding field of knowledge production, we suggest that they carry forward significant limitations, particularly in their claims to represent human beings as living creatures and in their capacity to critically reflect on the social, cultural and political origins of many forms of data ‘representation’. In this paper we take these ideas and explore them in relation to the way we see healthcare information systems currently functioning. We offer some examples from our own experience in healthcare settings to illustrate how unexamined ideas about individuals, groups and social categories of people continue to influence health information systems and practices as well as their resulting knowledge production. We suggest some ideas for better understanding how and why this still happens and look to a future where the reflexivity of healthcare administration, the healthcare professions and the information sciences might better engage with these issues. There is no denying the role of health informatics in contemporary healthcare systems but their capacity to represent people in those datascapes has a long way to go if the categories they use to describe and analyse human beings are to produce meaningful knowledge about the social world and not simply to replicate past ideologies of those same categories.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/121030