Sensing health: datafication and embodiment in digital health technologies

This review examines Sensing Health: Bodies, Data, and Digital Health Technologies, an important contribution to digital health and new media scholarship. The book analyzes how wearable technologies and health platforms redefine experiences of embodiment, agency, and wellness. Merging close interface analysis with phenomenological description, the book foregrounds the subtle ways health technologies shape, discipline, and sometimes disrupt users’ perceptions of health and the body. The author pays particular attention to gender, ability, and social class, revealing how digital health perpetuates exclusion while also serving as a site for micro-resistance and redefinition. The review highlights the book’s interdisciplinary integration, critical use of user narratives, and philosophical depth. It also notes limitations regarding the geographic scope and prescriptive design proposals. Ultimately, the review recommends the book as an essential reading for digital health researchers, critical health studies scholars, and practitioners interested in the lived dimensions of health technology.