Title

Medical Making as Infrastructure for Care

Udaya Lakshmi

Ph.D. Student in Human-centered Computing

School of Interactive Computing

Georgia Institute of Technology

www.UdayaLakshmi.com

Date: November 16, 2020

Time: 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM (EST)

Location: https://bluejeans.com/7870732959

**Note: this proposal is remote-only**

Committee

Dr. Rosa I. Arriaga (Advisor) - School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Elizabeth DiSalvo - School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Carl DiSalvo - School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Jennifer Mankoff - Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington

Abstract

The maker movement promises wider participation in technological production. Maker communities in health pursue this promise through shared expertise, emerging technologies, and a problem-solving mindset. Healthcare stakeholders, much like communities at large, improvise and innovate to improve routine practices. However, when they undertake making, it is enmeshed in their routine practices to care for others. Making for health takes place at the intersection of hierarchical systems, clinical practice, and regulatory structures in existing healthcare infrastructure. Previous studies in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Science and Technology Studies (STS) point to insights to design technologies at such intersections in other maker communities. My work draws from these fields to address critical making agendas in HCI through healthcare as a specialized site for innovation and repair. I investigate how the medical community’s norms of care shape making in healthcare infrastructure in three studies. The first explores how makers adopt fabrication technologies in routine clinical practice to create safe, reliable prototypes. The second, set during a public health crisis, explores how makers in online and on-ground communities repair temporary breakdowns in manufacturing infrastructure. My findings from these two completed studies inform design approaches to adapt maker infrastructure for medical community norms of safety, reliability, and encourage wider stakeholder inclusion. The third, a proposed study, examines the inclusion of nurses. This historically minimized stakeholder group in the U.S. outline future opportunities for maker-oriented activities. My thesis contrasts multiple efforts emerging to make for health from a sociotechnical lens to speculate on healthcare infrastructure design opportunities.

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Additional Meeting Details

Link:  https://bluejeans.com/7870732959

Phone Dial-in
+1.408.419.1715 (United States(San Jose))
+1.408.915.6290 (United States(San Jose))
(Global Numbers)

Meeting ID: 787 073 2959
Moderator Passcode (if required): 3003