New Technologies in Health Care: Challenge, Change and Innovation (Health, Technology and Society)

A unique, pathbreaking collection that provides the first, detailed and comprehensive analysis of the implications of new health technologies for society, the delivery of health care, and the very meaning of health itself. It is based on new, critical social science research integrated according to core themes, making it accessible and engaging. It will be of especial value to students and researchers in Social Science, Health Studies and medical schools. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 List of Tables......Page 8 List of Figures......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 10 Series Editors' Preface......Page 11 List of Contributors......Page 12 Introduction: New Technologies in Health Care: Opening the Black Bag......Page 16 Part 1 Genetic Risk, Reproduction and Identity......Page 24 1 The Genetic Iceberg: Risk and Uncertainty......Page 26 2 Navigating the Troubled Waters of Prenatal Testing Decisions......Page 40 3 Genetic Ambivalence: Expertise, Uncertainty and Communication in the Context of New Genetic Technologies......Page 55 Part 2 Information and Empowerment......Page 70 4 'Pathways to the Doctor' in the Information Age: the Role of ICTs in Contemporary Lay Referral Systems......Page 72 5 Desperately Seeking Certainty: Bone Densitometry, the Internet and Health Care Contexts......Page 86 6 Telemedicine, Telecare and the Future Patient: Innovation, Risk and Governance......Page 99 7 Patient 'Expertise' and Innovative Health Technologies......Page 112 8 Making Sense of Mediated Information: Empowerment and Dependency......Page 127 Part 3 Innovation, Context and Meaning......Page 144 9 Time, Place and Settings: Negotiating Birth, Childhood and Death......Page 146 10 Replacing Hips and Lenses: Surgery, Industry and Innovation in Post-War Britain......Page 161 11 Access, Agency and Normality: the Wheelchair and the Internet as Mediators of Disability......Page 176 Part 4 Regulation and Evaluation of IHTs......Page 190 12 Understanding the 'Productivity Crisis' in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Over-regulation or Lack of Innovation?......Page 192 13 Regulating Hybridity: Policing Pollution in Tissue Engineering and Transpecies Transplantation......Page 209 14 Cultural Politics and Human Embryonic Stem Cell Science......Page 226 15 Regulation and the Positioning of Complementary and Alternative Medicine......Page 239 16 Evaluation as an Innovative Health Technology......Page 247 Bibliography......Page 257 C......Page 283 G......Page 284 L......Page 285 R......Page 286 W......Page 287 Z......Page 288 M......Page 289 X......Page 290 Health and medicine are changing rapidly today, not least as a result of the impact of new technologies in areas such as genetic diagnostics, telemedicine, implants and body and brain imaging. Yet the challenges these raise, both within the clinic and the wider society, are only just beginning to be understood. This book provides a critical and comprehensive analysis of these developments through up to date social science research in the field. How are new technologies experienced by patients, carers, and clinicians and how are they changing our understanding of heath and illness, the meaning of 'being well' and the structuring of health care itself? The book is organized around a series of core themes to provide a clear and integrated discussion of contemporary debate and an editorial introduction that establishes the theoretical basis for the whole book. The text will be of especial interest to students and researchers in social science, health studies, and medical schools This is an analysis of the implications of health technologies for society, the delivery of health care, and the meaning of health. It is organized around a series of core themes to provide a clear and integrated discussion of contemporary debate and an editorial introduction that establishes the theoretical basis for the whole book The first detailed and comprehensive analysis of the implications of new health technologies for society, the delivery of health care, and the very meaning of health itself. It is based on new, critical social science research integrated according to core themes, making it accessible and engaging to both students and researchers.