Telecare Technologies and the Transformation of Healthcare

Abstract

Reviews the book, Telecare Technologies and the Transformation of Healthcare by N. Oudshoorn (2011). The book book explores the Dutch experience of telecare and this increasing emphasis on home-based care, focusing on three technologies for older people with heart disease: a telecare system for heart failure patients; a heart mobile phone for those at risk of heart attack; and a telecare device to diagnose heart rhythm irregularities. In characteristically clear and engaging style, Oudshoorn leads readers through the world of telecare, using both her own empirical research and existing studies to explore how 'care at a distance' changes the nature of healthcare, clinic and home and embodied illness experiences. Whilst telecare technologies collect endless streams of data about patients, they also produce new kinds of workers (data managers) who mediate between doctors and nurses and their patients, producing barriers that doctors and nurses find aggravating and disempowering. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)