Background

The implementation of e-health is transforming healthcare. The acknowledged benefits of digitalization are quality improvement, patient empowerment, and increased efficiency. The mobility of e-health makes it especially suitable for home healthcare. eMar is a common e-health technology used in Swedish home healthcare. Decisions about technology design are governed by developers’ perceptions of intended users. These perceptions can be identified in the description and promotion of a specific product.

Purpose

The purpose of the presentation is to contribute to increased knowledge about the values entailed in a specific eMar used in Swedish home healthcare, and furthermore to discuss how these values conform with existing national missions such as people-centered care.

Method

Information consisting of sales materials about a specific eMar used in several Swedish municipalities has been analyzed through critical discourse analysis to visualize values embedded in the eMar.

Findings

Preliminary results show that the provider of the specific eMar describes care in terms borrowed from the industrial sector, such as shift changes and production of care. Good and safe care is defined as the right person receiving the right medicine at the right time. Furthermore, the app is advertised as a tool for monitoring assuming that the performance of tasks can be influenced through the remote control of the employee. The eMar is described as representing new and modern technologies that are expected to raise the status of healthcare professions and facilitate the recruitment of employees.