Theoretical Inputs for Empirical Outputs: The Lenses of Science and Technology Studies from Digital Media for Exploring Algorithms in Healthcare

This chapter reviews concepts developed in different branches of the Science and Technology Studies (STS) debate in order to provide useful theoretical tools for the analysis of algorithmic technologies in healthcare. The theoretical reflection provided here deals precisely with analytical lenses and concepts produced within the STS debate about digital media, proposing data as the main entry point and three connected focal points: expectations and imaginaries, computation processes, and users. The chapter calls for an STS approach borrowed from media studies to be applied in the context of healthcare, concentrating on the building blocks of algorithmic authority. It will theoretically extend the lenses and categories emerging from the study of digital innovation, where non-human actors are intertwined in the promises, design, and implementation of algorithmic technologies as an assemblage reviewing recent research in healthcare. In doing so, the chapter aims to complement, rather than oppose, the body of knowledge outside of STS and potentially expand the range of applications for the categories and theoretical tools developed to study algorithmic technologies dedicated to the field of healthcare.