The Tyranny of Numbers
How e-Health Record Transparency Affects Patients' Health Perceptions and Conversations with Physicians
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3620267 |
|---|---|
| Authors | B M Kristensen (0000-0002-6718-8832, Psychiatry Region Zealand, corresponding author), John Brodersen (0000-0001-9369-3376, University of Copenhagen), Alexandra Brandt Ryborg Jønsson (0000-0002-4396-8383), Alexandra Brandt Ryborg Joensson (University of Copenhagen) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 1-25 |
| Publication date | 2022-04-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Medicine Anthropology Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2405-691X • E-ISSN: 2405-691X |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.17157/mat.9.2.5529 |
| OpenAlex | W4225113756 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 16 |
All Danish adults have access to their electronic medical records on the e-health platform Sundhed.dk, which is intended as a means to empower patients. But what happens when patients see their paraclinical test results presented as numbers which are flagged as either 'normal' or 'abnormal'? Based on fieldwork in general practices and consultations, and on observations of individuals living with chronic illnesses, we investigated how patients and physicians interpret and interact with such numerical values, creating, as we argue through the words of Gregory Bateson, 'epistemological errors'. We show how health record transparency blurs the patient's senses and understanding and makes it harder for them to interpret their state of health and to trust the clinical judgement of health professionals. We argue that the immediate access to test results triggers a runaway process in which numerical values (be they normal or abnormal in comparison with a standard point of reference) transform into a threat to life itself. As such, our ethnography underlines the intricate contradiction between the trust placed in biomedical sciences and the uncertainty involved in testing, diagnosing, and treating. Patients' access to all test results leads to a quest for certainty-one never fully obtainable, which thus instead mobilises new uncertainties
Certainty · Computer security · Contradiction · Epistemology · Judgement · Perception · Political science · Computer Science · Ethics in Clinical Research · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Race, Genetics, and Society · Social Psychology
A Recursive Vision
The Theory Of Social And Economic Organization
Ghostly Matters
The Tyranny of Transparency
Trust in Numbers
The factualization of uncertainty
The tyranny of light
Individuals on alert
Mind and nature
Anticipation
Am I fine
Viscerality, faith, and skepticism
Hydroxychloroquine Controversies
Infrastructures of trust and distrust
On Secrecy, Disclosure, the Public, and the Private in Anthropology
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |