HSS 3332 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Erykah Badu, Human Genome Project, Pharmacogenetics

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Health Sciences
• Course: HSS 3332
• Professor: Sarah Fraser

Document Summary

"sociological perspective" on health technologies argues that health technologies and the techniques, models and assumptions on which they are based are given meaning through the way they are tied into other technologies and social practices. It recognizes that health technologies will be subject to vastly different local interpretations and uses. The meaning of health technologies will also vary in different settings (from the clinic, to the home, to the internet), and vary in the way they shape diverse notio(cid:374)s of (cid:862)health(cid:863) fou(cid:374)d (cid:449)ithi(cid:374) a(cid:374)d (cid:271)et(cid:449)ee(cid:374) cultures. In this sense, technologies are best understood as an expression of, and thereby always expressed through, social relationships. Overtime, the value of technologies changes, perhaps because better ways of getting patient information or delivering the treatment they provide, or through changing social expectations about treatment (particularly evident when patient advocacy groups seek access to e(cid:454)pe(cid:396)i(cid:373)e(cid:374)tal d(cid:396)ugs(cid:895).