Virtual reality and the clinic: an ethnographic study of the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (The CAREN Research Study)

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dc.contributor.authorPerry, Karen-Marie Elah
dc.contributor.supervisorMitchell, Lisa Meryn
dc.date.accessioned2018-04-26T14:31:18Z
dc.date.available2018-04-26T14:31:18Z
dc.date.copyright2018en_US
dc.date.issued2018-04-26
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Anthropologyen_US
dc.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy Ph.D.en_US
dc.description.abstractAt the Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada, clinicians use full body immersion virtual reality to treat a variety of health conditions, including: traumatic brain injuries, post- traumatic stress disorder, acquired brain injuries, complex regional pain syndrome, spinal cord injuries, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and lower limb amputations. The system is shared between military and civilian patient populations. Viewed by clinicians and the system’s designers as a value neutral medical technology, clinical virtual reality’s sights, sounds, movements, and smells reveal cultural assumptions about universal patient experiences. In this dissertation I draw from reflexive feminist research methodologies, visual anthropology and sensory ethnography in a hospital to centre the body in current debates about digital accessibility in the 21st Century. 40 in-depth interviews with practitioners and patients, 210 clinical observations, and film and photography ground research participant experiences in day-to-day understandings of virtual reality at the hospital. In this dissertation I address an ongoing absence of the body as a site of analytical attention in anthropological studies of virtual reality. While much literature in the social sciences situates virtual reality as a ‘post-human’ technology, I argue that virtual reality treatments are always experienced, resisted and interpreted through diverse body schemata. Furthermore, virtual reality cannot be decoupled from the sensitivities, socialities and politics of particular bodies in particular places and times. The Ottawa Hospital’s Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN) system features a digitally enhanced walk-in chamber, treadmills on hydraulic pistons, surround sound audio, advanced graphics and user feedback utilizing force plates and a dynamic infrared motion capture system. The CAREN system utilizes hardware and software reliant on specific assumptions about human bodies. For example, these assumptions are echoed in depictions of race, gender, class, and indigeneity. Patients using virtual reality technologies can experience more than one disability or health condition at a time, further disrupting the idea of universal user experiences. As clinicians and patients confront the limitations of body normativity in the CAREN system’s interface design, they improvise, resist, and experience virtual reality in ways that defy design agendas, ultimately shaping patient treatments and unique paths to healing and health.en_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/9261
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectanthropologyen_US
dc.subjectanthropology of the bodyen_US
dc.subjectanti-oppressive medicineen_US
dc.subjectCARENen_US
dc.subjectComputer Assisted Rehabilitation Environmenten_US
dc.subjectcomputingen_US
dc.subjectcultural anthropologyen_US
dc.subjectdigitalen_US
dc.subjectdigital anthropologyen_US
dc.subjectdisability studiesen_US
dc.subjectdigital studiesen_US
dc.subjectethnographyen_US
dc.subjectfeminist anthropologyen_US
dc.subjectintersectionalen_US
dc.subjectfeminist researchen_US
dc.subjecthospital ethnographyen_US
dc.subjectinstitutional ethnographyen_US
dc.subjectmedical anthropologyen_US
dc.subjectmedicineen_US
dc.subjectphysiotherapyen_US
dc.subjectpost-traumatic stress disorderen_US
dc.subjectqualitative health researchen_US
dc.subjectqualitative researchen_US
dc.subjectqueer anthropologyen_US
dc.subjectsensory ethnographyen_US
dc.subjectvideo ethnographyen_US
dc.subjectvirtual realityen_US
dc.subjectvisual anthropologyen_US
dc.subjecttraumatic brain injuriesen_US
dc.subjectacquired brain injuriesen_US
dc.subjectcomplex regional pain syndromeen_US
dc.subjectspinal cord injuriesen_US
dc.subjectguillain-barré syndromeen_US
dc.subjectlower limb amputationen_US
dc.subjectlower limb amputationsen_US
dc.titleVirtual reality and the clinic: an ethnographic study of the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (The CAREN Research Study)en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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