Visualisation and Health

The use of technology to visualise the interior of the human body raises important sociological questions about the body, health and illness. The aim is to develop a programme of research in this area, with particular attention to:

The design decisions, work practices, and regulations that shape visualising technologies.
Patients’ experiences of medical imaging: how might imaging influence embodied experience and narratives of illness.
The movement of medical images from the clinic into broader society; the benefits and limitations of medical visualisation in relation to complex social issues

Recent Projects

Biomedical Visualisations and Society

An ESRC funded series of workshops for early-career researchers to explore the social and political implications of biomedical visualisations (2009/10).

Selected Publications

Roberts, J. (forthcoming). ‘Wakey wakey baby’: narrating four-dimensional (4D) bonding scans. Sociology of Health & Illness.
Griffiths, F., Bendelow, G., Green, E., & Palmer, J. (2010). Screening for Breast Cancer: Medicalisation, Visualisation, and the Embodied Experience. Health, 14, 653-668.
Palmer, Julie (2009) 'Seeing and knowing: ultrasound images in the contemporary abortion debate' Feminist Theory 10 (2), 173 - 189.
Trigoni, M., Griffiths, F., Tsiftsis, D., Koumantakis, E., Green, E., Lionis, C. (2008) 'Mammography screening: views from women and primary care physicians in Crete', BMC Womens Health, 8 (20), (1472-6874)
Griffiths F., Green E., Thompson, D. (2006) 'Are my Bones Normal Doctor? The role of technology in understanding and communicating health risks for midlife women', Sociological Research Online, 11 (4), 1 - 13 (1360-7804)
Griffiths F., Green, E., Henwood, F., Wyatt, S. (2006) 'Desperately Seeking Certainty: bone densitometry and the internet', in New Technologies in Health Care, 71- 83, (1403991308) London: Palgrave