Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Layers of sense: the sensory work of diagnostic sensemaking in digital health
1School of Government and Policy, University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT, Australia.
Abstract:
Sensory judgements have always been a part of medical practice and this sensory work is often entangled with technologies, from the stethoscope to digitised devices for advanced life support. This article investigates this sensory work and its entanglements with technological sensors in diagnostic practice. Based on semi-structured interviews, it presents a close analysis of practitioners' use of anaesthetic monitoring and telemedicine. It argues that senses and sensors are recursively combined in the moment towards understanding. In this, digital technologies do not present self-evident data, but rather the practitioner must learn to sense the sensors to interpret health and illness. Sensory work (of both the senses and sensors) is not dispensable or entirely delegable because it is intimately entwined with sensemaking. The significance of sensory work to sensemaking reinforces the importance of its consideration in digital health sociotechnical assemblages.
Related Concept Videos
What is a Sensory System?
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
Introduction to Special Senses
Tactile and Chemical Senses
Sensory Modalities
General senses refer to the broad category of sensory information detected by receptors in the body and can be further grouped into somatic and visceral senses. Somatic sensations include touch, pressure, temperature, and pain and are essential for navigating our environment and...
Layers of the Epidermis
Stratum Basale
Stratum basale, also known as the stratum germinativum, is the deepest layer of the epidermis. It is composed of a single layer of actively dividing cells called basal cells or basal keratinocytes. These cells constantly undergo cell division to replenish the upper layers of the epidermis. Additionally, melanocytes, which...

