Provocations for Reimagining Informatics Approaches to Health Equity

International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy

article

Rupa S. Valdez¹  Jessica S. Ancker²  Tiffany C. Veinot³ 

[1] Department of Public Health Sciences, Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, University of Virginia;Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center;School of Information and Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan

关键词: Health disparity;    health equity;    health informatics;    social determinants of health;    community engagement;   

DOI  :  10.1055/s-0042-1742514

来源: International Society for Engineering Education (IGIP), Kassel University Press

【 摘 要 】

As the informatics community commits to the goal of advancinghealth equity, it is essential that we openly critique our currentapproaches and reimagine the ways in which we design, implement, evaluate, and advocate for policies related to informaticsinterventions. In this paper, we present five provocations as astarting point for building more conscientious informatics practicein service of this goal: 1) Health informatics interventions cancreate an “illusion of impactful action” without significantmaterial benefits for marginalized patients, families, and communities; 2) Health informatics interventions target the wrongstakeholders, the wrong processes, and the wrong technologiesto achieve equity; 3) Informaticians must conceptualize healthliteracy and other factors shaping patients’ experiences as asystem-level rather than individual-level characteristic; 4) Informatics interventions wrongly assume that interacting contextualfactors can be meaningfully captured by over-simplified structured variables; and 5) Informatics interventions often specify thewrong system boundaries and solution space. We further assertthat drastic shifts in our current practices will allow us to honorour claims of valuing patient-centered approaches, especially formarginalized communities.

【 授权许可】

Unknown