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Research Areas
I think about questions in the history and philosophy of medicine and healthcare, including about what it means to have a disease, how we make a diagnosis, and how technology impacts these questions for clinicians and patients.
1
Concepts of Disease & Diagnosis
What is a disease? Is there one concept of disease, or does the definition of what counts as a disease depend on who you are and what your goals are? Do technologies transform how we identify and explain, and therefore conceptualize, disease? Is there a logic to diagnosis, and if so, is that logic embedded or encoded within the technologies that we use to make diagnoses?
2
The Electronic Medical Record
Why do we utilize Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems the way we do today? Why is narrative information in the History of Present Illness often inputed into pre-formatted templates? Is this because it reflects an accurate logic of diagnosis, or a demand from health insurance companies which fails to capture the complexities of diagnosis?
3
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
Are Artificial Intelligence systems used to predict diagnoses trained on a logic of diagnosis that reflects how clinicians actually make diagnoses, or a financially (via health insurance) motivated logic that has been embedded into the way we record disease in Electronic Medical Record systems? What does this mean for their long-term success?