This article examines the value of medical technology through the case of electroencephalograms (EEGs), devices used to visualize brain activity and diagnose seizures. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the article shows that EEGs are valued differently by patients and medical practitioners. While practitioners value EEGs for their clinical utility, i.e., ability to inform clinical decisions, patients value EEGs even in the absence of clinical utility. Indeed, patients derive long-lasting therapeutic effects from this diagnostic technology. These findings intervene in the utilitarian calculus of therapeutic value—a mode of reasoning that equates value with clinical utility—commonly deployed in biomedicine and engineering and call for a recognition of alternative notions such as the therapeutic value of being witnessed and cared for by medical experts via EEGs and other technologies that require time to work. Expansive notions of therapeutic value are imperative for including marginalized patients—especially low-income, disabled, and women patients—in debates on automation and the future of healthcare. Studying how multiple stakeholders value a medical technology provides insight into valuation, objectification, expertise, and other concerns central to science and technology studies.

中文翻译：

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数字脑电波时代的治疗价值


本文通过脑电图 （EEG） 的案例来研究医疗技术的价值，脑电图是用于可视化大脑活动和诊断癫痫发作的设备。利用人种学田野调查，文章表明患者和医生对脑电图的重视程度不同。虽然从业者重视脑电图的临床效用，即为临床决策提供信息的能力，但患者即使在没有临床效用的情况下也重视脑电图。事实上，患者从这种诊断技术中获得了持久的治疗效果。这些发现干预了治疗价值的功利主义计算——一种将价值等同于临床效用的推理模式——通常部署在生物医学和工程学中，并呼吁承认其他概念，例如通过脑电图和其他需要时间的技术由医学专家见证和照顾的治疗价值需要时间工作。在关于自动化和医疗保健未来的辩论中，必须考虑广泛的治疗价值概念，尤其是低收入、残疾和女性患者。研究多个利益相关者如何评估医疗技术，可以深入了解估值、客观化、专业知识和其他科学和技术研究的核心问题。