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Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the article shows that EEGs are valued differently by patients and medical practitioners. While practitioners value EEGs for their clinical utility, i.e., ability to inform clinical decisions, patients value EEGs even in the absence of clinical utility. Indeed, patients derive long-lasting therapeutic effects from this diagnostic technology. These findings intervene in the utilitarian calculus of therapeutic value\u2014a mode of reasoning that equates value with clinical utility\u2014commonly deployed in biomedicine and engineering and call for a recognition of alternative notions such as the therapeutic value of being witnessed and cared for by medical experts via EEGs and other technologies that require time to work. Expansive notions of therapeutic value are imperative for including marginalized patients\u2014especially low-income, disabled, and women patients\u2014in debates on automation and the future of healthcare. Studying how multiple stakeholders value a medical technology provides insight into valuation, objectification, expertise, and other concerns central to science and technology studies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/03063127241241032","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,8]],"date-time":"2024-04-08T01:24:05Z","timestamp":1712539445000},"page":"931-954","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Therapeutic value in the time of digital brainwaves"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"54","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5255-4599","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Megh","family":"Marathe","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-03063127241241032","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1097\/01.NAJ.0000405057.23324.a8"},{"key":"bibr2-03063127241241032","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s11065-007-9047-5"},{"key":"bibr3-03063127241241032","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/016224399702200102"},{"key":"bibr4-03063127241241032","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/016224390002500201"},{"key":"bibr5-03063127241241032","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bspc.2019.101702"},{"key":"bibr6-03063127241241032","first-page":"231","volume":"1994","author":"Bowker G.","year":"1994","journal-title":"Information Acumen: The Understanding and Use of Knowledge in Modern Business"},{"key":"bibr7-03063127241241032","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.seizure.2010.10.027"},{"key":"bibr8-03063127241241032","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4135\/9781848607941"},{"key":"bibr9-03063127241241032","volume-title":"Cyborg babies","author":"Cartwright E.","year":"2013"},{"key":"bibr10-03063127241241032","volume-title":"Good days, bad days: The self in chronic illness and time","author":"Charmaz K.","year":"1991"},{"key":"bibr11-03063127241241032","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jneumeth.2022.109483"},{"key":"bibr12-03063127241241032","unstructured":"Child Neurology Foundation. 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