An Ethnography of the Medical Record; digital technology and other enactments in the ontology of the clinic room.

The research project proposed here aims to develop an understanding of how technologies come to bear on the production of knowledge, practice and discourse within the hospital setting. Of how information is produced, recorded and consumed by participants (patients, doctors, clinical scientists, administrators, managers, etc.) Of the ontology/ontologies of the patient medical record.

The medical record discussed here is a body of information collected and stored for purposes of clinical care and/or of maintaining a record of care delivered. The aim is to produce an empirical, ethnographic account of the enactments (social and technical) that produce this medical record in practice; an ethnographic anatomy of the medical record.