HP INNOVATION RESEARCH SEMINAR
Chaired by Professor Robin Mansell, Head, Department of Media and Communications, LSE
WEDNESDAY 16th May 2007
6.15pm - 8.00 pm
This seminar tackles key issues in the field of health care technologies from two different vantage points. In the case of telecare programmes, there are questions about the evidence base for decision making and about which stakeholders can have a say in the implementation of technologies and services. In the case of Internet-based support networks, the evidence about motivations for use of the network gathered from patients calls into question many of the assumptions often made by those who design health care support systems using new technologies.
Evidence, Adoption and Diffusion: the UK's Emerging Telecare Programme
Professor James Barlow and Dr Jane Hendy, Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London
The presentation explores on the role of 'evidence' in influencing decisions about whether to adopt 'telecare', drawing on research we are conducting on the government's £150m implementation programme. We suggest that decision making about whether to introduce telecare cannot be compared to decisions about the adoption of a new drug or surgical technique because of its complexity as a hybrid technological / service innovation. The necessary involvement of many stakeholders from across the care system, drawn from different professional groups and holding different perspectives on what constitutes acceptable evidence, represents a potential barrier to mainstream implementation of telecare in the UK.
Patients' Experience of Internet Environments: Storytelling, Empowerment and Its Limitation
Dr Shani Orgad, Department of Media & Communications, LSE
The presentation will consider the kinds of processes of communication that Internet users who have concerns about health issues engage in. It draws on research which focused on the online participation of breast cancer patients in Internet spaces and will discuss the experiences of a broader range of patients and their experience of medical websites. It will expand the focus of existing research on information seeking and social support, to consider an activity that patients engage in, that of storytelling. Analysis of how patients configure their experiences into stories provides an innovative way of understanding online communication as a socially significant activity and explores some of the limitations of this activity. This presentation will also critique of the concept of empowerment, a concept that governs many accounts of patients' use of the Internet and the implications for those involved in the design of patients' Internet spaces and policymakers that regulate them will be considered.
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This Seminar will take place in BOX, 5th Floor, Tower 3, Clements Inn, London WC2A 2AZ. The event will start at 6.30pm, preceded by drinks from 6.15pm. There will be a canapé reception after the presentations from 8.00pm.
More information to follow
To reserve a place at the above event, please contact Jo Cantlay at irpevent@lse.ac.uk|,
tel: +44 (0)207 955 7285.