A Sociohistorical Approach

The healthcare sector is a major driver of innovation in our societies, adopting emerging technologies across many disciplines. While technical–organizational tools such as remote monitoring have impacted doctor–patient relationships, earlier technologies had already introduced similar dynamics. Pharmaceutical testing and medical imaging are key examples. The imaging file plays a key role in setting up a shared medical record. Remote patient monitoring is associated with the convergence between the modernization of the healthcare sector, patient-centered re-engineering and improvements in the quality of care. Industrial companies have fully understood that well-being is the first step on the path to good health. Connected objects, applications and services contribute to a greater datafication of the healthcare field. The increasingly significant involvement of the sociotechnical mediations has progressively broadened the patient–doctor relationship, which in medicine refers to the very particular relationship between a doctor and their patient during an appointment in a specific location.