Datafication of Health: User, Patient, and Professional Perspectives

Eindhoven, the Netherlands, 13-14 April 2023

Datafication of health is the process of collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data about health in order to frame and define the meaning and implications of health and disease and expand prevention and care pathways. It is closely related to digitalization of health care, the process of transforming the operating models and social interactions of health care using information technology. In this international scientific conference, we devote attention to the psychological, philosophical and ethical aspects of datafication of health. The conference encompasses empirical research on user, patient, and professional perspectives, as well as philosophical and ethical critique of datafication.

Submission Guidelines

We invite abstracts of 500 words presenting new empirical and conceptual work on the topic. Abstracts should be prepared with title, keywords, word count, and abstract text, blinded for review. The deadline for submission is 31 January 2023. We intend to confirm acceptance or rejection by 28 February 2023. We anticipate two parallel sessions, one devoted to empirical papers and the other to conceptual, philosophical, and ethical papers. However, work that combines empirical and conceptual approaches is also welcome. Also, non-standard formats including panel discussions with multiple papers or speakers, workshops, etc., will be considered.

Abstracts should be submitted to the EasyChair page for DOHUP23.

By submitting the abstract, the author(s) thereby consent(s) to sharing it with the conference committee and anonymous referees selected by the committee.

If an abstract is accepted, a presenting author will be required to register for the conference within a reasonable timeframe in order for it to be included on the conference program.

There will be limited availability of hybrid facilities at the conference. Priority will be given to in-person contributions. However, with an appropriate motivation in terms of funding, logistics, or environmental impact, contributors may request hybrid facilities.

List of Topics

Some questions to be considered are:

• What is the relationship between datafication, medicalization, and responsibilization of health? (“Responsibilization” refers to efforts to make people responsible for their own health.)
• How does datafication create different health trajectories and effects within different population groups and roles (e.g., young, older, people with chronic illness, the “worried well”, long term care recipients, informal caregivers, women, men, other gender identities, people of color)?
• Under what conditions (if any) can datafication of health provide knowledge and empowerment to users and patients?
• How can technology design best respond to user and patient perspectives concerning health and access to care?
• What effect does datafication have on clinical roles and responsibilities and the patient-clinician relationship?
• Can the practice of medicine be made more caring and trustworthy through new techniques of using health data?
• How do ethical concerns and legal constraints regarding data privacy influence datafication of health, and what distinctive concerns arise about health data privacy in the age of big data?

Committees

Program Committee

• Philip J. Nickel
• Lily Frank
• Peter Ruijten-Dodoiu

Keynote Speakers

Janna Hastings, Assistant Professor of Medical Knowledge and Decision Support at the Institute for Implementation Science in Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, and Vice-Director, School of Medicine, University of St. Gallen.

Deborah Lupton (virtual from Australia),  SHARP Professor in the Centre for Social Research in Health and the Social Policy Research Centre and Leader of the Vitalities Lab, University of New South Wales, Australia. Professor Lupton is also the UNSW Node Leader, Health Focus Area Leader and People Co-Leader of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society.

Tamar Sharon, Professor of Philosophy, Digitalization and Society, Chair of the Department of Ethics and Political Philosophy at Radboud University, and Co-director of iHub, Radboud's interfaculty center for research on digitalization and society.

Venue

The conference will be held on the campus of Eindhoven University of Technology in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. There are excellent transport links to the campus.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to Philip Nickel at p.j.nickel_at_tue.nl.