Electronic records of obstetrics and gynecology encounter: beyond professional logics of health care

Abstract

This paper examines how use of electronic medical record (EMR) within professional understanding of medical model have bearings upon the health-care provisions for women. Through a qualitative, empirical study in four hospitals, we showed that understanding illness/health of married women were not solely driven by clinical signs and symptoms rather originate in the socio-economic context. We discuss how within doctor-patient interactions, EMR mediates doctor's actions by putting patient's physiological 'system', like reproductive system, in the centre. We find that EMR serve the needs of doctor by valuing their understanding and, beliefs over patient and discounting the patient's situational aspects. We unpack some doctor-patient interactions where patients' needs arising outside 'medical model' were met. Drawing on our findings, we argue for the need to update the understanding and approach within HCI community towards tools mediating health care provision of women by taking into account specificity of situations in design, not merely focusing on symptoms coming from disease taxonomies.