In September, as part of the tiempoensalud.cl project, we will be taking part in the Medical Anthropology Europe Conference 2025 at the University of Vienna. The presentation is entitled “Time re-configured: five shifts in the configuration of medical temporality mediated by Artificial Intelligence. A multi-sited case study in Chile”, and forms part of the panel “Sociality with/through AI in Health and Medicine: Current Figurations, Imagined Futures”.
The summary is as follows:
Time reconfigured: five transitions in the construction of medical temporality mediated by artificial intelligence. A multi-site case study in Chile.
Shaping the temporal dynamics of healthcare is a key issue for Western governments, one which has historically been addressed through cost-effectiveness analyses and the standardisation of procedures. However, in recent years, the significance of these approaches has shifted with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a technological alternative. This study analyses the implications of AI for the configuration of medical temporality, examining emerging transitions that juxtapose and mobilise the epistemic and practical planes. Based on a multi-site case study in the Metropolitan Region of Chile, the research draws on ethnographies centred on experts’ workspaces and AI-guided clinical practices, utilising participant observation, interviews and documentary analysis.
The study employs abductive analysis to integrate the empirical data with the literature review. The results reveal five key transitions: (a) from regulatory logic to algorithmic logic; (b) from inductive reasoning to iterative reasoning; (c) from sedentary practices to itinerant practices; (d) from stratified sensibilities to interstitial sensibilities; and (e) from mechanical-digital frameworks to organismic ones. These transitions reshape the way in which information is perceived and processed, which has implications for both medical practices and their temporal configurations.
Medical temporality no longer unfolds in a linear fashion, but emerges as a sensitive and dynamic framework in which the past, present and future become operational variables within iterative flows. This reconceptualisation challenges conventional notions of time in medicine. The article concludes with an analysis of the epistemological implications of these changes, particularly with regard to the definition of objectivity in specialised and routine healthcare procedures. Thus, AI not only reconfigures the practical dimensions but also drives deeper transformations in the very understanding of temporality within healthcare systems.
More information about the conference can be found here 👉🏼 https://mae.univie.ac.at/home/