The limits of empowerment: How to reframe the role of mHealth tools in the healthcare ecosystem
This article highlights the limitations of the tendency to frame health- and wellbeing-related digital tools (mHealth technologies) as empowering devices, especially as they play an increasingly important role in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. It argues that mHealth technologies should...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Verlag
2019
|
| _version_ | 1797091157373616128 |
|---|---|
| author | Morley, J Floridi, L |
| author_facet | Morley, J Floridi, L |
| author_sort | Morley, J |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | This article highlights the limitations of the tendency to frame health- and wellbeing-related digital tools (mHealth technologies) as empowering devices, especially as they play an increasingly important role in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. It argues that mHealth technologies should instead be framed as digital companions. This shift from empowerment to companionship is advocated by showing the conceptual, ethical, and methodological issues challenging the narrative of empowerment, and by arguing that such challenges, as well as the risk of medical paternalism, can be overcome by focusing on the potential for mHealth tools to mediate the relationship between recipients of clinical advice and givers of clinical advice, in ways that allow for contextual flexibility in the balance between patiency and agency. The article concludes by stressing that reframing the narrative cannot be the only means for avoiding harm caused to the NHS as a healthcare system by the introduction of mHealth tools. Future discussion will be needed on the overarching role of responsible design. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:29:00Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:ba0a9829-5cdf-4f88-97a6-166395ab8af7 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:29:00Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Springer Verlag |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:ba0a9829-5cdf-4f88-97a6-166395ab8af72022-03-27T05:07:18ZThe limits of empowerment: How to reframe the role of mHealth tools in the healthcare ecosystemJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:ba0a9829-5cdf-4f88-97a6-166395ab8af7EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordSpringer Verlag2019Morley, JFloridi, LThis article highlights the limitations of the tendency to frame health- and wellbeing-related digital tools (mHealth technologies) as empowering devices, especially as they play an increasingly important role in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. It argues that mHealth technologies should instead be framed as digital companions. This shift from empowerment to companionship is advocated by showing the conceptual, ethical, and methodological issues challenging the narrative of empowerment, and by arguing that such challenges, as well as the risk of medical paternalism, can be overcome by focusing on the potential for mHealth tools to mediate the relationship between recipients of clinical advice and givers of clinical advice, in ways that allow for contextual flexibility in the balance between patiency and agency. The article concludes by stressing that reframing the narrative cannot be the only means for avoiding harm caused to the NHS as a healthcare system by the introduction of mHealth tools. Future discussion will be needed on the overarching role of responsible design. |
| spellingShingle | Morley, J Floridi, L The limits of empowerment: How to reframe the role of mHealth tools in the healthcare ecosystem |
| title | The limits of empowerment: How to reframe the role of mHealth tools in the healthcare ecosystem |
| title_full | The limits of empowerment: How to reframe the role of mHealth tools in the healthcare ecosystem |
| title_fullStr | The limits of empowerment: How to reframe the role of mHealth tools in the healthcare ecosystem |
| title_full_unstemmed | The limits of empowerment: How to reframe the role of mHealth tools in the healthcare ecosystem |
| title_short | The limits of empowerment: How to reframe the role of mHealth tools in the healthcare ecosystem |
| title_sort | limits of empowerment how to reframe the role of mhealth tools in the healthcare ecosystem |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT morleyj thelimitsofempowermenthowtoreframetheroleofmhealthtoolsinthehealthcareecosystem AT floridil thelimitsofempowermenthowtoreframetheroleofmhealthtoolsinthehealthcareecosystem AT morleyj limitsofempowermenthowtoreframetheroleofmhealthtoolsinthehealthcareecosystem AT floridil limitsofempowermenthowtoreframetheroleofmhealthtoolsinthehealthcareecosystem |