The Question Concerning Narration of Self in Health Informatics

Narration is central, even crucial, when it comes to embracing the whole individual, continuity of care, and responsible (ethical) handling of the technological construction of the self that takes place in health informatics. This paper will deal with the role of narratives in the construction of health informatics platforms and how different voices should have space for speech on these platforms. Theoretically the paper takes an outset in the actant model for narratives by the French-Lithuanian theorist of linguistics and literature A.-J. Greimas and post-phenomenological readings of human-technology interactions. The main assumption is that certain interactions and voices are absent from the construction of health informatics platforms, because regarded as outside the text of computational and medical practice and expertise. This has implications for what concerns meaning and understanding regarding both the actual users (physicians and medical staff) and excluded users (patients and citizens).