Ethos and Values in the Commercialization of Health & Wellness Technologies in Silicon Valley
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The Silicon Valley tech ethic is known for the success it has brought giants such as Google, Facebook and Apple. Movement into the health/wellness industry is new, but booming, giving rise to new questions about what transformations in healthcare Silicon Valley tech companies will spawn. This project approaches this phenomenon from an ethical perspective by considering both Silicon Valley tech values and medical values in marketing media from three significant Silicon Valley health/wellness tech companies: 23&Me, Apple Cloud, and Google Health. It presents an analysis of company ethos in order to understand possible values which comprise company ethos and their implications. Each case study performs a rhetorical analysis on company messaging in order to describe company ethos, and consider the implications of that ethos on patient wellbeing. Ultimately two values – one medical and one Silicon Valley – are present in the rhetoric of the analyzed communications of these three companies. Such messaging portrays how these two values work together to diminish stakeholder concern, and the possible negative consequences of these companies emerging medical technologies. Ultimately, this project looks at how the risks and benefits of each company’s product or service are interrelated to a company’s values. An understanding of these values and their possible medical outcomes may serve as a helpful basis for developing proactive regulatory and personal guidelines for these three studied companies and others like them.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 25, 2020 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Howard, Michelle |
|---|---|
| Advisor | Palmer, Megan J |
Subjects
| Subject | science technology and society |
|---|---|
| Subject | ethics |
| Subject | silicon valley |
| Subject | values |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Howard, Michelle. (2020). Ethos and Values in the Commercialization of Health & Wellness Technologies in Silicon Valley. Unpublished Honors Thesis. Stanford University, Stanford CA.
Collection
Stanford University, Program in Science, Technology and Society, Honors Theses
View other items in this collection in SearchWorksContact information
- Contact
- michellehoward.mmh@gmail.com
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