Contextualising data work in healthcare : a preliminary analysis of the Care.data project

Drawing on a sociology of medical work perspective, this paper offers a framework and empirical example for understanding how the processes of data work in healthcare can be significantly affected by their structural conditions—with unforeseen consequences. During 2012 the UK government and National Health Service (NHS) initiated the care.data project. The purpose of the project was to establish a database containing data linking patients’ interactions with the NHS (e.g. referrals, clinical data, prescriptions, treatments) across all care settings. The analysis of this information would enable clinical commissioning groups researchers and others, to increase both the clinical effectiveness of the NHS and its economic efficiency. In 2016, after multiple delays and mounting criticism, the care.data project was officially abandoned. Based on the framework and empirical example, the conditional path that led to the controversy and abandonment of the care.data project is reconstructed. In a conclusion, it is suggested that, in order to be productive, processes of data work in healthcare should be placed in the context of their structural conditions and anticipated consequences—a role that can be undertaken by CSCW.