Digital Links
Digital Emancipation or Oppression in Healthcare?: Conflicting Theoretical Puzzles and Practical Realities in the Use of E-Health Applications in Widening Health Access and Literacy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Michael Strange, Elisabeth Mangrio, Slobodan Zdravkovic
Science & Technology Studies has described the computational translation of health information as ‘datafication’ often from a critical stance in which such technologies limit agency of patients and clinicians. Conversely, healthcare has long since been structured along highly unequal lines with high levels of inequity in which parts of the population experience reduced healthcare access. In addition, there are high levels of high illiteracy where some groups are not only unaware of their own health needs or how to access healthcare, but the healthcare system is itself lacking key information on the needs of those individuals. In that context, digital systems that can handle and communicate large data sets are often heralded as a solution for better connecting patients and the healthcare system within a holistic model. Outlining these theoretical (and often hyperbolic) discussions, the paper looks to the example of digital health – both implemented and potential – within Skåne in Southern Sweden, with a mix of an advanced welfare model healthcare system combined with a diverse population consisting of many foreign-born nationals. Interviewing professionals working with healthcare delivery in Skåne, we investigate the intersection between the theoretical arguments and the practical constraints and opportunities for digital health. We discuss to what extent such technology may lead to widening healthcare and wellbeing for a diverse population (emancipation) or worsen existing inequalities (oppression).
Connected by Stroke - a Program Evaluation of March of Dimes Canada’s Virtual Living with Stroke™ Program View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Erika Clark, Michelle LA Nelson, Elizabeth Lartey, Christina Sperling, Rambel Palsis
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, health and social service organizations have rapidly modified and adapted stroke support services to provide virtual delivery options. Virtual programming removed barriers for many people with disabilities allowing for timely, convenient, and efficient access to programming. However, there is a gap in the literature surrounding evaluations of virtually delivered community-based programs. March of Dimes Canada (MODC) is a national non-profit providing services to people with disabilities and their caregivers, including people who have experienced a stroke. In partnership with Heart and Stroke Foundation Canada, MODC launched the virtual Living with Stroke™ program in the spring of 2022 and developed a two-year evaluation to measure program effectiveness and feasibility, and to address the knowledge gap. After completing the Year 1 process evaluation, the evaluation is finding that the virtual Living with Stroke™ program is connecting people with stroke across Canada, increasing psychosocial well-being through common understanding, feelings and experiences, and knowledge of stroke and its lasting effects. This paper highlights the impact of social connection and well-being on physical health outcomes measured through the first year of MODC’s evaluation.
