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Dear Colleague, Herewith a proposal for a theme at the 4S/EASST meeting in Vienna in September 2000. We very much hope that you will be interested in participating in it. Theme: Information Technology (IT) and Biomedicine Organizers : Madeleine Akrich ([log in to unmask]) Cécile Méadel ([log in to unmask] ) Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation Ecole des Mines de Paris Geoffrey C. Bowker ([log in to unmask]) Department of Communication University of California, San Diego Recent developments in information technology and especially with respect to the web are making a large impact on biomedicine, with respect to both professionals and researchers on the one hand and patients or more generally the public on the other. Three kinds of effects can be distinguished : 1) The use of information technologies in the redefinition of professional relationships and practices - for instance, there have been a great increase in the number of computer mediated discussion lists and forums. These cover a wide range of discussed topics, from calls for expertise or advice about a specific patient to political discussions and to discussions about the use of information technologies themselves. These trends raise different kinds of questions : to what extent are the frontiers of individual practice blurred by such extensive exchange practices? Are these exchanges having a homogenising effect on individual practice? Do these new technologies permit new forms of collaboration or cooperation to develop? 2) The effect of new media on the development and dissemination of knowledge. There is intensive circulation of references and scientific articles over the net. First, even for non research oriented clinicians, it puts controversies in which a larger number of discussants can be involved onto center stage. Does this modify the clinicians' relations to science in their practice? Does this have an impact on the way research agendas are defined? Secondly, the net allows for new modes of data collection: does this have an impact on epidemiological research and on the nature of actors involved in this research? Is the frontier between clinicians and researchers being redefined ? 3) The constitution of new collectives through discussion lists, forums, chat groups - both professional and patient. On the professional side, one can ask in what ways IT participates in the redefinition of professional identities and their politicization. On the patient side, several questions are raised. Are there different kinds of collectives? What circulates between patients: compassion, information, shared experience, scientific articles ? What is constituted through this circulation: a common vocabulary to describe patients'experiences, friendship, new forms of expertise or knowledge, political agendas, new ways of relating to professionnals ? If you wish to propose a paper, please contact any of three persons listed above, preferably before January 20th. Please feel free to pass this call on to anyone you believe may be interested. Sincerely yours, Madeleine Akrich, Cecile Meadel and Geoffrey C. Bowker %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%