mHealth, self-management and empowerment
The incorporation of mHealth technologies into the daily lives of ‘health consumers’ is increasingly being promoted as an avenue to strengthening patient autonomy and improving population health outcomes. The routine use of mHealth technologies has been lauded by some for facilitating better-informed patient choices, enabling self-monitoring and self-management and providing access to healthcare to a wider patient cohort at lower costs.
However, the emphasis on self-management implicit in mHealth applications raises ethical concerns. The placing of responsibility for health outcomes on the individual might shift attention away from broader socio-political and economic factors which shape individual and population health. Moreover, mHealth technologies generate further concerns regarding data security and algorithmic bias that can exacerbate patient vulnerability in a healthcare context. This project investigates the complex possibilities, tensions and challenges involved in mHealth, aiming to evaluate under which circumstances these technologies can improve public health and empower individuals and communities in a healthcare context.
Background research for this project will be conducted at the University of Oxford, as part of the Caroline Miles Scholarship at the Ethox Centre.
Main investigator: Tereza Hendl