Docent lecture: Digital Health: access through inclusion

Digital Health: access through inclusion

Global societal challenges cannot be addressed by a discipline or a sector in isolation. This is especially true for the design of the digital space of healthcare. Myriad applications promise behavior change and sustainable healthier habits with often questionable evidence and design process. Healthcare struggling with implementing digital services often leads to breakdowns (e.g. Millenium) and technology often increases the marginalization of patients. Academia and practice do not always cooperate to produce realistic theories and evidence-based products. 

When I fell in love with the human-computer interaction field I thought I could support developing technology that is easy to use, valuable, and bridges gaps in situations like the ones mentioned above. In this lecture, I will present how Human-Computer Interaction intersects with the health field through my academic journey toward digital health, the challenges the digital brings into health, and the particularities of the health field that make it different from other fields digital technology has infiltrated.  

I will conclude the lecture with three visions I aim to pursue in the next 5-7 years that will contribute to digital health research, education, and beyond. These visions include developing conceptual tools through my research to support the design of an inclusive and accessible digital society focused on health, developing interdisciplinary education to address digital health challenges, and contributing to a career-focused sustainable doctoral education.