Tinkering with vulnerability in video consultation encounters: 7th Nordic STS Conference

Video consultations constitute an emerging technology in general practice, offering new ways for physicians and patients to interact. While previous studies have shown video consultations to be time-efficient, they have also revealed experiences of distance with a social and emotional character between patients and physicians. Little is known about how the use of video consultations and their embedded efficiency interact with aspects of vulnerability and how vulnerability unfolds in a consultation formed with less presence. In this analysis, we draw in part on the broad definition of vulnerability as a potential for harm. We explore how video consultations affect these potentials for harm and the relationship between vulnerability and video consultation use through the lens of science and technology studies (STS). Viewed through this lens, vulnerability is an enacted property that emerges and evolves through interactions between actors, i.e., within the network between patients, technology, and GPs. In this article, four cases of video consultations are presented, as we show how vulnerability can be enacted in video consultation encounters, illustrating how the dynamic nature of vulnerability can be “tinkered with”, i.e., adjusted and modified, through technology-mediated assemblages such as video consultations.