Module SOCI3617: Digital Health and other devices: back to the future

Department: Sociology

SOCI3617: Digital Health and other devices: back to the future

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• This module aims to provide students with the conceptual and methodological tools to think sociologically about the development and use of technologies in lay and professional management of health and illness.

Content

• Thinking sociologically about health technologies
• Technological expectations in health
• Digital health
• Artificial intelligence in medicine and health care
• Telemedicine and telecare
• Personalised and precision medicine
• Datafication of health
• Apps for health and illness

Learning Outcomes

• Upon successful completion of this module, students will have demonstrated:
• An ability to draw on sociological concepts to understand the development and use of technologies in health and health care.

• Upon successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
• Understand key aspects of technological development in health care;
• Critically evaluate sociological arguments and evidence in relation to technology in health contexts;
• Apply theoretical and methodological knowledge to an appropriate sociological question in the field of health technologies.

• Upon successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
• Formulate research question or problem and independently organise and implement a task-based approach to address it;
• Demonstrate capacity to collect, organise, summarise and present a variety of types of data pertaining to health technologies;
• Demonstrate qualitative research skills: the ability to extract information and analyse documents, interviews or other forms of qualitative data;
• Demonstrate competence in understanding and use of IT resources;
• Demonstrate a capacity to improve own learning and performance through independent learning and peer feedback.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• During periods of online teaching, for asynchronous lectures in particular, planned lecture hours may include activities that would normally have taken place within the lecture itself had it been taught face-to-face in a lecture room, and/or those necessary to adapt the teaching and learning materials effectively to online learning.
• Lectures: introduce designated topic areas in a systematic manner;
• Seminars: enable students to explore and evaluate sociological concepts and methodologies arising from lectures and from independent reading;
• Summative assessment: Aims to assess students’ ability to frame and operalitionalise a sociological problem in the domain of health technologies;
• Formative Assessment The optional formative essay provides an opportunity for students to receive feedback on these capacities and understandings prior to completing their summative work.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

An optional essay plan/outline.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University