ICU, Interrupted: Critical Care and Critical Technology in Argentina

• In Event: Emergent Technologies in Biomedicine and Healthcare: Boundaries, Tensions, and Possibilities - II

Abstract

Intensive care heavily relies on technology for the diagnostics and monitoring of critically ill and severely injured patients. In the ICU, patients require continuous monitoring of their vital signs, overview of their hemodynamic and respiratory parameters, and measurements on blood and body fluids. However, among technologies like mechanical ventilation, imaging, and pharmaceuticals, physicians’ decision making skills are one of the most critical technological tools at hand. ICU doctors work by mixing caring and technological practices through constant resource assessment and cost/benefit reasoning. While discussions within the critical care in the Global North focus on new technological advancements and telemedical monitoring (White 2016), in Argentina’s public hospitals conversations around “emergent technologies” are perceived as aspirational. Drawing from extended fieldwork in intensive care units in public hospitals in the Buenos Aires area, this paper reflects on the use of ICU technology in a context where monitors, vasopressors, and CAT scans do not always perform as expected. Here, technological innovation works under different premises and delivers different promises, as Argentina’s own “vital signs” are diagnosed as far from stable. Specifically, I explore how ICU technology in state-funded care in Argentina is understood by medical staff as an ambiguous yet crucial ally in the care of patients. How, where, and for whom might certain technologies be considered “emergent”? What counts as technological innovation where improvisation and creativity are part of daily life inside and outside the ICU? How can STS perspectives reckon with alternative narratives of technological advancement?

Author

• Livia Garofalo, Northwestern University