Sci-Tech Asia Webinar
Population Ageing and Medical Robotics: An Exploration of Robot-assisted Rehabilitation in South Korea
Webinar Description
The discourse of population ageing drives growth in care and rehabilitation robotics. However, the sector is also driven by positive evidence regarding the use of robots in rehabilitation. These studies highlight that robots add benefits due to their calibrated routines. Behind this assessment lies the notion of neuroplasticity, whereby it is claimed that the death of an area in the neural network is compensated by alternative pathways generated by the repeated movement of affected limbs. Based on fieldwork in rehab hospitals and centres in South Korea, this paper explores the ‘socio-technical imaginaries’ (Jasanoff and Kim 2009) concerning these robots, as they emerge in the intersection of societal challenge, scientific theory and clinical practice. Specifically, it unravels how the issues of ageing, the ambiguous identity of rehabilitation medicine, the state’s vision of creating a leading nation and the theory of neuroplasticity handily serving robot-assisted therapy, are all intertwined to drive the deployment of rehabilitation robots. Well-known for its embrace of new technologies, South Korea is an apt place to interrogate the robotic futures envisaged by these imaginaries.
Speaker
Seonsam Na (Yonsei University College of Medicine)
Seonsam Na is a physician practising Korean medicine, a mainstream form of medicine in South Korea associated with traditional East-Asian medicine. Currently, he works in a hospital near Seoul specialising in the rehabilitation of patients with serious neurological conditions. Holding a doctorate in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford, he has given lectures to trainee psychiatrists enrolled on its postgraduate psychiatry course. He is also affiliated with the Institute of Medical History at the Yonsei University College of Medicine as Visiting Professor. His research covers a wide range of subjects, including medical politics, artificial intelligence and robotics, Christian healing, social ontology and Guillain-Barré Syndrome. He has published in Korean Journal of Philosophy of Medicine, Harvard Asia Quarterly, Integrative Medicine Research, Korean Studies and Medicine Anthropology Theory. A monograph project based on his doctoral dissertation explores the broad contours of medical politics and contemporary dynamics of social change in South Korea.
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