Journal article
Smart textiles: transforming the practice of medicalisation and health care
Sociology of health & illness, v 41(1), pp 147-161
01 Oct 2019
PMID: 31599985
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
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.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Smart textiles: transforming the practice of medicalisation and health care
- Creators
- Kelly Joyce - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Sociology of health & illness, v 41(1), pp 147-161
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 15
- Grant note
- 1430212 / United States National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Sociology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000489792800010
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85073097350
- Other Identifier
- 991019168381804721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
- Social Sciences, Biomedical
- Sociology