Looking at the Echo: A Post-Phenomenological Investigation into the Lived Experience of the Transthoracic Echocardiogram.

This research investigates the role of the transthoracic echocardiogram in patient experience and the medical encounter. The echocardiogram is a medical imaging technology routinely used in healthcare, with nearly 300,000 performed in England between April and May 2019 (Blake, 2020), and yet there has been little research into the importance and consequence of this technology for the patient's lived experience and the medical encounter. In
response, this study brings geographical writing into conversation with the medical humanities in a post phenomenological investigation into the transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE), reconciling two under-examined areas in medical imaging scholarship: the lived and embodied experience, and technological mediation. By adopting an innovative methodological approach that enables an exploration of three central themes - encounter, corporeality and image - this PhD will show that the TTE offers a unique space to engage with understandings of the heart, corporeality, digital geographies and the concept of encounter - and the relations between these. This investigation into the consequences of the TTE will create impact in academic spheres on human-technology relations and patient experience, and externally, within NHS cardiology departments and charities.