An interdisciplinary exploration of digital health technology for sufferers of Type 1 Diabetes

This research project will explore and elucidate the relationship between digital health technologies and the lived experience of sufferers of Type 1 Diabetes.

The proliferation of digital mobile health technologies such as Constant Glucose Monitors (CGM) and Insulin Pumps has revolutionised care conditions for Type 1 Diabetes patients, leading to largely improved health outcomes in the form of better regulated blood glucose levels and potential reduction in Hba1C levels, prolonging life and deferring the development of comorbidities arising from the condition. Outside of clinical outcomes, deeper sociological investigation is required to understand the eventualities of technologies that augment, mediate and define states of being through subdermal sensors, algorithms and interfaces, and the newly emerging subjectivities of the disabled/impaired self.

Following the traditions of Feminist Science and Technology Studies, Digital Cultural Studies and Disability Studies, I will apply critical social theory and philosophies of technology within an ethnographic observational study of Type 1 Diabetes Patients as both a person living with disability, and a user that relies on algorithmic interpretation and interface-based representations of the conditions of their body.

Predominantly, my research focuses on the three pillars: The impaired/disabled self as technological hybrid, the interface and algorithm as a means to know, interpret and express intimate states of being, and the complexities of navigating the normative world as a disabled/impaired technologically mediated being. Physical symptoms are reducible, quantified and formalised, becoming part of the dataflow within the political economy of healthcare in the age of big data. The project represents a convergence of my research interest in the intersections between technology data and the self, and my personal experiences caring for a child with Type 1 Diabetes, for whom algorithmic technologies and bodily augmentations are shaping his early perception and understanding of his condition and physical self.

The research is funded via a 1+3 ESRC DTP studentship commencing in October 2020 with an ESRC DTP Masters in Social Science Research. The PhD research project will be undertaken within the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Warwick, supervised by Dr Nerea Calvillo, and Dr Michael Dieter. In my previous academic experience, I have achieved a BA in Broadcasting and Journalism from the University of Wolverhampton, and an MA in Digital Culture from the University of Warwick.