10,000 Steps to the Doctor’s Office: Patient-generated Data and the Boundaries of Medical Authority

• In Event: 2184 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. New Health Technologies and Alternative Care Approaches

Abstract

In 2016 alone, corporations sold over 100 million digital wearable fitness tracking devices to consumers, and 20% of people in the United States report using these devices in their everyday lives. Concomitantly, employers and insurers have developed programs to track their users’ health through these technologies and to provide incentives based on the data they collect, using the data as a proxy for good health. The medical establishment, however, has not embraced this patient-generated data in the ways that insurers have. In this project, I argue that the way personal tracking data is used by patients, insurers, and medical professionals provides an opportunity to explore two key areas of tension among these actors in modern health and fitness: definitions of healthy behavior and boundaries of medical authority.

Author

• Marianne Neal-Joyce, University of Massachusetts-Amherst