Who Cares? Exploring the Concept of Care Networks for Designing Healthcare Technologies

Dealing with a chronic condition often involves daunting tasks and the participation of multiple people in care. Previous literature has documented collaboration between patients, clinicians, close relatives, friends, and paid carers. However, collaboration in care has been mostly examined as the work of dyads, such as patients and clinicians. In this workshop, we will explore the concept of care networks, which can better account for the numerous human and non-human actors and roles that compose care. We invite designers, researchers, and practitioners to participate in a full-day workshop in which we will reflect on empirical studies and theoretical accounts of care networks, and put forward an agenda for better acknowledging care networks in the research around healthcare technologies and systems.