“Digital Health Humanities”

In this talk, Kirsten Ostherr will discuss “digital health humanities,” an emerging research method that blends critical analysis with the use of computational tools to explore research questions related to digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) in health care. As a method that draws from and extends the fields of digital humanities and health humanities, digital health humanities employs digital tools to conduct humanities health research focusing on ICTs as objects of inquiry within the domain of health. Through analysis of the social and technical features of digital health technologies, this method emphasizes engagement with patients, caregivers, and other research participants that use the technologies under investigation. This talk will explain how Ostherr’s lab, the Medical Futures Lab, has identified research problems suitable for exploration and intervention using digital tools, gathered data on the need for and appropriateness of a digital health design intervention for a specific problem or patient population, and assessed the necessary social and technical features of digital ecosystems.