Locus of care

Medicine, health care and the wider social meaning and management of health are undergoing major changes. In part, this reflects changes in the locus of care. Genetics, informatics, imaging and integrative technologies, stem cell therapies all contribute to redefining our understanding of the body, health and disease. At the same time, health is no longer simply the domain of conventional medicine, nor the clinic. Locus of care refers to the ways in health care is no longer primarily the preserve of the clinic. With digitalisation, globalisation and a growing emphasis on personal responsibility, more and more health care is taking place in non-medical settings. This section draws from three books in which locale plays an important role:

• Petersen et al. (Stem cell tourism and political economy of hope. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) follow people from one clinical location to another in pursuit of stem cell treatments that are available in some parts of the world but not others.

• Wathen et al. (Mediating health information: The go-betweens in a changing socio-technical landscape. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) focus on how digital technologies make it possible for people to find health information in all sorts of places, including libraries, rural and Indigenous communities in Canada and Australia.

• Pasveer et al. (Ways of home making in care for later life. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) bring us ‘home’, the traditional site of health care, and the place where many older people wish to remain.