Towards a Digital Health Humanities Curriculum: Tools and Strategies

FAIN: AKA-270156-20

Northeastern University (Boston, MA 02115-5005)
Sari Altschuler (Project Director: September 2019 to October 2022)
Christopher M. Parsons (Co Project Director: April 2020 to October 2022)

The development of a digital health humanities curriculum for undergraduates.

We propose to develop a curriculum that prepares students both to address the social and cultural aspects of the data-heavy medicine of the future and to be alert to the significant ethical issues it raises. To do so, we are applying to develop an innovative curriculum in the digital health humanities at Northeastern University. This planning grant will allow us to pursue three avenues to enrich and expand the footprint of the health humanities on our campus: new classes, open-access modules, and experiential education opportunities. In so doing, we will build our curriculum in directions that prepare students to address current and future issues in an increasingly digitized healthcare.

Associated Products

Culture, Technology, and the Futures of Health and Healthcare (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Culture, Technology, and the Futures of Health and Healthcare
Author: Sari Altschuler
Author: Christopher Parsons
Author: John Basl
Author: Matthew Goodwin
Author: Laura Senier
Author: Sara Jensen Carr
Abstract: Course description: This course introduces the challenges posed by the data-heavy medicine of the future to privacy, the appropriate collection of medical data, and the ways that patients and healthcare workers alike think about health. Students will learn how to use critical and ethical theories, analyze health narratives, and use historical and contemporary data about health disparities to forecast how new technologies might pose social and cultural challenges. The course takes a humanities perspective to critically evaluate social and cultural aspects of a healthcare system shaped by emerging technologies and the data they produce.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1riabZEfhgoz-YZltbCQIwCFaQLJDhGNx9Yq6bobemQI/edit?usp=sharing
Audience: Undergraduate

Invited Talk (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Invited Talk
Abstract: Altschuler was invited to give a public lecture and afterward talk with the Medical Humanities community about the progress we were making with our program building.
Author: Sari Altschuler
Date: 4/22/2021
Location: University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign

Digital Health Humanities Teaching Modules (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Digital Health Humanities Teaching Modules
Author: Sari Altschuler
Author: Christopher M. Parsons
Author: John Basl
Author: Sara Jensen Carr
Author: Matther Goodwin
Author: Laura Senier
Abstract: Northeastern’s Digital Health Humanities Teaching Modules are open-access resources that introduce students to the cultural and ethical challenges posed by the data-heavy medicine of the future to privacy, the appropriate collection of medical data, and the ways that patients and healthcare workers alike think about health. These modules teach students how to parse the ethics of digital technologies and big-data approaches to healthcare, how to analyze narratives that structure contemporary healthcare, and how to use historical and contemporary data about health disparities to forecast social and cultural challenges posed by new technologies. In short, they use the humanities and social sciences to evaluate social and cultural aspects of a healthcare system shaped by emerging technologies and the data they produce.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://healthhumanities.sites.northeastern.edu/modules/
Primary URL Description: You can find links to the modules here.
Audience: Undergraduate

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