What Diagnostic Devices Do: The Case of Blood Sugar Measurement
What Diagnostic Devices Do: The Case of Blood Sugar Measurement
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诊断设备的用途：血糖测量案例
DOI：
10.1023/a:1009999119586
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发表时间：
2000
影响因子：
1.4
通讯作者：
A. Mol
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
A. Mol
诊断设备不仅仅是被动地记录事实。它们在使用它们的情况下进行干预。这里要解决的问题是，这一一般性评论在具体情况下可能意味着什么。为了回答这个问题，我们正在分析一个具体的案例：糖尿病患者可以使用血糖测量设备来监测自己的血糖水平。该装置不仅可以使患者更好地接近正常血糖水平，而且首先改变了正常血糖水平。使用该设备可以将人们的注意力从他们的身体感觉转移到测量的数字上，但它也可以帮助他们增加自己的身体自我意识。最后，自我监测（这些设备使之成为可能）使患者减少了对专业人员的依赖，但它要求他们进行自我约束，并将他们与测量活动的结果联系起来：他们自己的血糖水平。
Diagnostic devices do more than just passively register facts. They intervene in the situations in which they are put to use. The question addressed here is what this general remark may imply in specific cases. To answer this question a specific case is being analysed: that of the blood sugar measurement device that people with diabetes may use to monitor their own blood sugar levels. This device not only allows the patients concerned to better approach normal blood sugar levels, but alters what counts as normal in the first place. Using the device may shift people's attention away from their physical sensations towards the numbers measured, but it may also help them to increase their own physical self-awareness. Self-monitoring finally (something that the devices have made possible) makes patients less dependent on professionals, but it requires them to engage in self-disciplining and binds them to the outcomes of their measurement activities: their own blood sugar levels.