Old data in new devices? Problematic popularizations of digital health data and consumer devices

Abstract

Digital health data and devices have become increasingly popular in the last two decades. This resonates with research on the expansion of health data ecosystems, the platformization of health issues, the rise of consumerism in medicine, and the movement of big tech into healthcare. The proliferation of popular health devices, such as activity trackers and smart watches, however, does not simply reinforce existing dynamics of medicalization or economization. The expansion of digital health data opens up a contested space in local settings, such as doctor-patient interactions, where data and devices are evaluated and negotiated, depending on and varying by symptom, medical discipline, and type of patient. We focus on these negotiations by analyzing how popular apps and devices create instances of problematic popularity, where popular devices and personal data conflict with professional authority. We suggest three distinct types of popularization of digital health data and devices - professionalization, personalization, and public attention. Our perspective foregrounds the importance of popularization as a practice for enabling and constraining the expansion of health-related data into local healthcare settings.