RENEE WURTH, Ph.D, RD
Inclusive Tech Design
Designing mhealth for vulnerable populations.
The marginalized of society are often omitted from tech design. I joined the Wellness Technology Lab (at Northeastern's College of Network Science) in undertaking an exhaustive literature review of all mobile health research done on vulnerable populations. Vulnerable was defined as either a racial or ethnic minority or physically disabled. We performed thematic coding to gain qualitative insights, and I personally completed the meta-analysis to observe the quantitative trends across the studies (that had quantitative data). The results underscored the value in culturally tailoring --- something that transcends mobile health technology and should be a standard for all technology.
Vaccine generated inequality.
Dr. Saksono & I wrote a correspondence article in Nature, in which we argued how medicine and technology must reckon with historical racism or else run the risk of the vaccine worsening the COVID-19 pandemic disparity. We published a more thorough argument in which we display the advantages of giving more control and resources to the communities that serve the vulnerable populations that risk not being vaccinated.