Abstract

Healthcare informatics is undergoing major changes due to new infrastructures like social media that allow patients to proactively bring information to the physician consultation. We use the concept of infrastructuring to describe these changes, referring to the social practice of adapting human infrastructure for specific contexts. This poses informational and social challenges to providers, as they negotiate new boundaries with patients. Information integrity is essential because of risks to both parties. Infrastructuring in this case is the maintenance of information privacy and accuracy, or information integrity. The tasks of vetting information integrity and managing patient expectations add complexity to provider work even as physicians are positive about patients taking responsibility for their own health. The paper addresses infrastructure transformations, the process of infrastructuring, and a concept of information integrity. Using qualitative data from a medical setting, the study illustrates the contradictions physicians face in accommodating social media to their practice.

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Information Integrity and Human Infrastructure in Digital Health Care

Healthcare informatics is undergoing major changes due to new infrastructures like social media that allow patients to proactively bring information to the physician consultation. We use the concept of infrastructuring to describe these changes, referring to the social practice of adapting human infrastructure for specific contexts. This poses informational and social challenges to providers, as they negotiate new boundaries with patients. Information integrity is essential because of risks to both parties. Infrastructuring in this case is the maintenance of information privacy and accuracy, or information integrity. The tasks of vetting information integrity and managing patient expectations add complexity to provider work even as physicians are positive about patients taking responsibility for their own health. The paper addresses infrastructure transformations, the process of infrastructuring, and a concept of information integrity. Using qualitative data from a medical setting, the study illustrates the contradictions physicians face in accommodating social media to their practice.