[Air-l] Information, Communication and Society- Special Issue on e-Health Call for Papers

[Loader, Brian]

Information, Communication and Society- Special Issue on e-Health Call for
Papers

The area of e-Health is now huge and covers a wide range of socio-technical
innovations in health service delivery and organisation. This Special Issue
will explore just one key area of e-Health- the use of information and
communication technologies (ICTs) in the communication of health information
and advice - both to patients/public and between members of the public. 

Health policy documents in many countries suggest that the greater
availability of health information via the Internet will necessarily lead to
the emergence of more informed patients who are better able to assess the
risks and benefits of different treatments for themselves. The now widely
used notion of 'informed choice' is indicative of the greater agency and
sense of empowerment said to be experienced by such patients. Such thinking
exists within sociology, too, where, following Giddens' notion of the
'reflexive consumer', there is some support for the idea that the overall
expansion in medical knowledge via new media technologies such as the
Internet will empower patients. 

This Special Issue of iCS seeks to explore the assumptions embedded in this
'informed patient' discourse through empirically-based papers which explore
the extent and nature of Internet use in a range of settings and its
relationship to patient empowerment and more equitable practitioner-patient
relationships.

Topic areas we hope to cover include:

*	Creation and use of health information websites by both health care
professionals and the public
*	Use of the Internet in consultations between practitioners and
patients
*	Online health chat and self-help groups
*	
*	Key cross-cutting themes we hope to examine include:
*	
*	Access and equality issues
*	Information quality
*	Practitioner-patient relations
*	Information and empowerment

Deadline for submission of papers: Monday 17th November 2003. 
Co-editors: Flis Henwood, Brighton University, UK and Ellen Balka, SFU,
Canada.
Please send all submissions to:
Dr Flis Henwood
Social Informatics Research Unit
School of Computing, Mathematical and Information Sciences
University of Brighton, Watts Building, Lewes Road
Brighton BN2 4GJ

f.henwood at bton.ac.uk or tel +44 (0)1273 643341


Brian D. Loader
General Editor, iCS
CIRA,
University of Teesside,
Middlesbrough,
Tees Valley, TS1 3BA
UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1642 342710
Fax: +44 (0) 1642 342711
www.infosoc.co.uk
b.d.loader at tees.ac.uk