NUCare and Personal Health Informatics present

  

Community Wellness Informatics:
Creating Technology for Health Equity

 

Monday, December 5^th, 2016

12:00 – 1:00 PM

177 Huntington Avenue, 12^th floor

 

Speaker: Andrea Grimes Parker, PhD

Assistant Professor, College of Computer and Information Science and Bouvé College of Health Science, Northeastern University

Abstract:  In the United States (U.S.), there are serious and persistent disparities in health outcomes. Socioeconomic status is predictive of mortality and disease, with low-SES households disproportionately experiencing the poorest health outcomes. This inequality is due in large part to social determinants of health—social, physical, and economic conditions that make it more challenging to achieve wellness in low-SES communities. Disruptive innovations are sorely needed to reduce health disparities. Technology, with its growing ubiquity and ability to provide engaging, informative, and empowering experiences for people, presents exciting opportunities for health equity research. However, there has been little Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research examining how software tools should be designed to facilitate health equity in the U.S. by addressing the social determinants of health.

In this talk, I will present a set of case studies demonstrating how the Wellness Technology Lab is pursuing technology-driven social change through health promotion. These case studies explore how social computing and mobile technology can help low-SES communities both cope with barriers to wellness and address these barriers directly. Drawing upon our research on digital games for physical activity promotion in families, social computing tools for youth advocacy and wellness promotion, and a systematic review of over 80 mobile health (mHealth) publications, I will articulate opportunities and challenges for a community wellness informatics agenda within HCI.

This is the last seminar of 2016—don’t miss it!

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