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Abstract
Through an ethnographic study of a healthcare Business Intelligence unit, this paper explores BI data work as a ‘matter of care’.
Big Data in its various forms - be it data science, machine learning, or business intelligence - promises to solve healthcare challenges and make healthcare data-driven. These aspirations for data-driven healthcare are often found in political and management strategies that anticipate new technologies to enhance management, research, and patient treatment. Meanwhile, Big Data in general have been criticized for data fetishism, mass surveillance, and disregarding the ethical implications and the human impact of data practices.
Despite this, the desire for data-driven healthcare is not solely imposed from the outside: Big Data and its practitioners (the so-called data professionals) are no longer placed in distant centers of calculation but have moved in with healthcare. In other words, they are situated within the messy, social-technical practices of healthcare, co-creating data technologies, practices, and politics with healthcare professionals. I suggest exploring these data work practices of data professionals as a matter of care. In this case, entangled practices that involve not only caring for data, but also for healthcare professionals and patients; navigating local needs and demands; entering critical dialogues on data and data representations; and ultimately aiming to save lives with data.
Big Data in its various forms - be it data science, machine learning, or business intelligence - promises to solve healthcare challenges and make healthcare data-driven. These aspirations for data-driven healthcare are often found in political and management strategies that anticipate new technologies to enhance management, research, and patient treatment. Meanwhile, Big Data in general have been criticized for data fetishism, mass surveillance, and disregarding the ethical implications and the human impact of data practices.
Despite this, the desire for data-driven healthcare is not solely imposed from the outside: Big Data and its practitioners (the so-called data professionals) are no longer placed in distant centers of calculation but have moved in with healthcare. In other words, they are situated within the messy, social-technical practices of healthcare, co-creating data technologies, practices, and politics with healthcare professionals. I suggest exploring these data work practices of data professionals as a matter of care. In this case, entangled practices that involve not only caring for data, but also for healthcare professionals and patients; navigating local needs and demands; entering critical dialogues on data and data representations; and ultimately aiming to save lives with data.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 8 Jun 2023 |
| Publication status | Published - 8 Jun 2023 |
| Event | 6th Nordic STS Conference 2023 - University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Duration: 7 Jun 2023 → 9 Jun 2023 https://www.sv.uio.no/tik/english/research/news-and-events/events/conferences/2023/nordic-sts/ |
Conference
| Conference | 6th Nordic STS Conference 2023 |
|---|---|
| Location | University of Oslo |
| Country/Territory | Norway |
| City | Oslo |
| Period | 07/06/2023 → 09/06/2023 |
| Internet address |
Keywords
- data work
- Business intelligence
- Healthcare
- Ethnography
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- 1 Finished
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Making Data Work Visible: Business Intelligence in Healthcare
Pedersen, A. M. (PI)
01/01/2021 → 31/10/2024
Project: Research