Digital health care and data work: Who are the data professionals?

Background: This article reports on a study that investigated data professionals in health care. The topic is interesting and relevant because of the ongoing trend towards digitisation of the healthcare domain and efforts for it to become data driven, which entail a wide variety of work with data.

Objective: Despite an interest in data science and more broadly in data work, we know surprisingly little about the people who work with data in healthcare.

Data Work in Health Care: The Case of Medical Secretaries.

This paper investigates the often neglected area of data work by medical secretaries, specifically in the context of hospitals in Denmark. Since the 1930s medical secretaries have played a steadily more central role in meeting the growing need for health data. With electronic health records (EHRs) and promises of data automation, the profession has been put at risk of redundancy.

Changing Health Behavior with Social Technology? A Pilot Test of a Mobile App Designed for Social Support of Physical Activity.

Mobile applications targeting people engaged in physical activity have increased. However, while research has identified social support as a key factor for people's engagement in physical activity, most mobile health (mHealth) applications are designed for individual use. In this paper, we report on a research study exploring opportunities for designing mHealth to facilitate social support around physical activity.