Some generated extracts
Below, we share some extracts from interviews and ethnographic notes produced as part of the project
Field note
Queue at a public hospital
Just as I was reaching the counter, I managed to overhear a conversation between a woman who appeared to be about 65 years old and the nurse who coordinates appointment times for the Endocrinology department. The woman explained that about a year ago she had been told to have four tests carried out. Today she had returned with the results. When asked by the nurse, the woman says she cannot remember which doctor saw her and ordered the tests. The nurse then asks for her identity card, whilst laughter from other people behind the counter can be heard. The woman finally explains that she had a second appointment with the doctor, but on that occasion he told her he needed all the test results to determine her diagnosis. After a quick glance at the screen, the nurse asks the woman to take a seat in the waiting room whilst she awaits a response.
Public hospital
17 March 2017.
interview
Camilla
The patient on the bed next to mine had been in hospital for months, waiting for a date for her operation. When I asked her why she wasn’t waiting at home, she replied that she didn’t want to leave the hospital so as not to lose her priority for the operation
Public hospital
12 June 2023.
Space
We monitored the situation [at the clinic] and realised that the device which is most effective for surgery wasn’t being used, because it was left on a high shelf and the nurses were rather short.
Clínica, 8 November 2020.
Artificial Intelligence
So, we came up with some ideas, for example, regarding the delivery of a scan report following a procedure. What usually happens is that the report arrives late at the surgery, but the scan has already been carried out, and the problem lies in the time it takes for the report to reach the patient. Once they have it, the patient books an appointment with the doctor, the doctor sees them, and there’s no need to say, ‘Yes, you had cancer.’ That whole process took 30 days. Instead, I could have an artificial intelligence model that literally scans the entire automated report, detects markers of metastasis and prioritises those cases for the doctor’s consultation. So, if 100 scan results came in, there might be 20 where metastasis is likely. The AI could schedule those first. That’s case management.
Clinic, 19 December 2025.
Artificial Intelligence
… we are developing an AI tool to assist a nurse in diagnosing lung cancer. I have a list of patients who are being diagnosed and a tool to help her manage those people who are waiting to start treatment more effectively, with the help of the patients themselves, who report on how they are getting on.
So patients are being asked questions via WhatsApp… It’s not really an app or anything; I mean, it is an app, but neither the nurse nor the patients have to install anything – instead, the patient will be asked questions once a week by the AI: ‘How have you been? What have you been up to? Do you have any new test results or not?… And the nurse will receive a summary of this in a report, because she has hundreds of patients… Hundreds! So she’ll be alerted if a patient’s condition deteriorates, or they start having shortness of breath (…) because patients die whilst waiting in the respiratory ward.
5 December 2024.
Artificial Intelligence
The doctor asks, ‘How is my patient doing?’ Then the system sends him the update: ‘He’s got off the plane’, ‘He’s arrived’, ‘He’s on his way’ – there’s a lot going on. Before, coordinating all that involved endless spreadsheets, loads of information, and Post-it notes stuck everywhere. Nowadays, this software allows us to keep track of everything. We know all the patient’s medical history, all the diagnoses, the biopsies that have come back – including any performed externally; we know which clinic has the patient, where they are being treated, and how they are being managed. And from a technological point of view, we’re supporting that software with an engine that facilitates the exchange of data between different record-keeping systems.
9 December 2025.