Well-connected systems that safely and ethically share information have a lot of potential to improve care and safety. Due to systems having developed organically and over long periods of time, the reality today is more piecemeal. There are several current initiatives to develop and improve the situation; the main barriers are often managerial or ethical rather than technical. Increasingly, the focus is on moving data out of big silos like hospitals to places where it can be accessed (when appropriate) by others.

In this chapter, women’s expectations and plans for motherhood are followed, using qualitative, longitudinal interview data collected in the UK between 2017 and 2019. Their narrations are compared to key experiences from the original motherhood study conducted 21 years earlier. In both motherhood studies, familiarity with normative constructions of ‘good’ motherhood is apparent well before pregnancy. But in the contemporary study, these are now also informed by limitless digital resources, such as social media platforms, forums and applications (apps). The average age for first-time motherhood in the UK has increased so that women have longer established work biographies and career histories before experiencing maternal subjectivity. In this antenatal period, the women draw upon strands of different discourse to narrate pregnancy and their preparations for motherhood, including managing a pregnant body, plans for birth and a return to the workplace. Generational changes are also invoked, alongside hopes that grandparents will help fill anticipated childcare gaps, easing the financial burden of working parenthood. The discourse of ‘balance’ and ‘balancing work and family life’ is used to describe plans for managing working motherhood/parenthood, which either seem possible from this pre-baby vantage point or, for some, are already provoking a sense of anxiety.

This chapter sets the broader context for the book, which repeats a study on transition to first-time motherhood undertaken 21 years earlier. It asks what a new study on motherhood can tell us about how expectations and experiences are configured in harsher neoliberal conditions and digital landscapes that can empower and individually and experientially, undermine. In this first chapter, the context against which contemporary motherhood is experienced is compared to the earlier study. This chapter will also provide the theoretical and conceptual framework for the book through a focus on definitions and debates around motherhood and narrative construction, gender, and contextual, structural factors. The methodological details of the two qualitative longitudinal studies (which use the same research design) on transition to first-time motherhood are outlined in this chapter, setting the scene for the data presented in Chapters 2, 3 and 4. The chapter asks if it has ever been a more challenging time to be a woman who is also a mother.

LGBTQIA+ patients are an important patient population to highlight when discussing urban emergency medicine. There are a multitude of terms regarding gender expression and identity that emergency medicine providers should familiarize themselves with if they plan on taking care of this patient population. Within the LGBTQIA+ population, there are specific medical and psychological issues that are relevant to each subgroup. Providers are not expected to know everything about their patients, but they must remember to remain open-minded and non-judgmental as they take care of everyone with precision and dedication. If a provider feels that the patient needs help in ways they cannot be of service, then the provider should be able to point the patient in the right direction via resources and referrals.

This chapter considers how the Internet (and technology more widely) affects sex, including online pornography use, internet sex addiction, and dating apps. Practical advice on safe use of the Internet for dating is given. Advice for parents on the importance of open two-way discussion with children about online risks is covered.

When life throws you a problem, the solution our contemporary market moment proffers tends to be some sort of phone-based computer program, that is, an app. In this chapter, the authors take a look at apps designed to manage menstrual cycles. In so doing, the authors show that apps tend to individualize a problem, prize forms of efficiency and normative ideas of gender, all with a mystifying veneer of utopian market optimization and self-help. What’s interesting for us is the way that apps can individualize the problems they’re trying to solve and in so doing often seek to assist people in enhancing their human capital. The authors close with a contrast to anticapitalist punks seeking not individual optimization but collective liberation. In turn these punks offer those who menstruate a liberatory relationship with their own bodies.

The use of digital technologies in healthcare is changing how medical treatments are developed by researchers, delivered by medical professionals and experienced by patients. This chapter argues that a defining feature of this disruption is the emergence of medical apps that leverage algorithm-based AI systems. As the use of such apps and AI wearables goes mainstream and new players – notably ‘Super Platforms’ with digital rather than medical expertise – enter the healthcare sector, traditional medical services will be transformed.

These developments pose several challenges for regulators and policymakers, most obviously in terms of privacy and data protection. Here, we examine how the emerging field of Legal Design can provide a more transparent infrastructure that embeds relevant legal protections in the user interfaces of healthcare products and services. A Privacy-by-Design approach focused on the user interface (UI) offers several advantages, most obviously greater transparency, accountability and human choice. The chapter offers real-world examples of design patterns that illustrate the value of UI-focused Privacy-by-Design in protecting sensitive information, enabling people to retain control of their personal data. The chapter concludes with some examples and reflects on the challenges in implementing Legal Design in an eHealth context.

There remains a persistent need for mental health services among youth, with the majority of youth untreated. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) have the potential to revolutionize mental health care for adolescents. DMHIs are digital tools aiding in detection, prevention, and treatment of mental health problems for adolescents. DMHIs provide interventions and services that are accessible, low-cost, and available to adolescents. This chapter discusses barriers to mental health care among adolescents, followed by a discussion of how DMHIs can address these barriers to improve access to and quality of adolescent mental health services. It reviews research on DMHIs and digital frameworks used to collect and deliver psychoeducation, assessment, and interventions across hardware (e.g., smartphones, computers) and modalities (e.g., online, text, apps). It concludes with a discussion of current limitations of DMHIs and directions for the field to improve the development, dissemination, and implementation of adolescent mental health care using DMHIs.

This chapter discusses results for user-facing services that show whether the services show biases towards specific groups of users, whether they comply with policies, laws, and regulations, and how they use user data in providing their services. The chapter first focuses on network-level services, such as server-side blocking and the provision of wireless internet access. Then, the chapter discusses web-based services, including privacy policies, search, social networks, and e-commerce. The chapter closes by discussing results for mobile services, such as the characteristics of app stores, third-party libraries, and apps.

Schools are the keepers of personal and sensitive data which is provided at the time of enrolment and entrusted to the school. As the student progresses through his or her academic years, further information and performance data are collected and stored in order to best gauge the position of the student and provide support. Some of this information is for administrative purposes while other data is collected to track achievement or bring attention to a particular area of need. With the convenience and space available for online and cloud storage of student data, teachers have an increased responsibility towards protecting personal information. This information can typically include names, addresses, religious affiliations, nationality, date of birth, behavioural notes and medical information. Photographs, video clips, and online and hard-copy documents used in schools also fit the criteria of personal information (Australian Law Reform Commission, ). Personal information is not limited to students as it can also apply to staff, volunteers, contractors, parents and others who are connected to the school.

Drawing upon the GKC framework, this chapter presents an ethnographic study of Woebot – a therapy chatbot designed to administer a form of cognitive behavioral therapy (“CBT”). Section 3.1 explains the methodology of this case study. Section 3.2 describes the background contexts that relate to anxiety as a public health problem. These include the nature of anxiety and historical approaches to diagnosing and treating it, the ascendency of e-Mental Health therapy provided through apps, and relevant laws and regulations. Section 3.3 describes how Woebot was developed and what goals its designers pursued. Section 3.4 describes the kinds of information that users share with Woebot. Section 3.5 describes how the designers of the system seek to manage this information in a way that benefits users without disrupting their privacy.