DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN THE HEALTHCARE PRACTICES OF ST. PETERSBURG RESIDENTS

The article presents results of an empirical study of the digital technologies in the healthcare practices of St. Petersburg residents,- a telephone survey (N=861, August 2021). Although the healthcare digitalization is attracting attention of scholars today, there is a lack of data on how widespread are digital healthcare practices among the population, and whether they are combined with traditional options (for example, doing sports or visiting a doctor). Of particular importance is the identification of factors that determine adoption of new ways to maintain health. As a result of the study, we obtained data on the usage of digital healthcare practices among residents of St. Petersburg. While telemedicine is seen as a main frontier of healthcare digitalization in our country, it does not enjoy significant popularity among respondents. Four modes of healthcare were found, in two cases combining traditional and new practices: "digital care", "healthy lifestyle", "classic care" and "advanced care". We associate adoption of new practices with current social transformations that contribute to emergence of modern interpretations of what it means to be healthy today. Digital technologies are just tools facilitating implementation of new ideas in practice. Factors for engagement in digital healthcare include age, Internet use, and trust in digital sources of information. The identified age differences allow us to raise the question about emerging inequality in medical care access. The study showed high levels of trust in medical professionals and personal experience, combined with acceptance of other sources of medical information - digital data.