The Visual History of Computational Health

FAIN: DOI-293791-23

Rice University (Houston, TX 77005-1827)
Kirsten Anne Ostherr (Project Director: February 2023 to present)

Research and development of a scholarly monograph on the history of the computational approaches to healthcare, 1960s-2000s. 

This project seeks to determine the implicit humanistic values embedded in the design and use of healthcare technologies. Through archival research and analysis of audiovisual media produced by medical professionals and technology developers, this project will explain how early ideas about emerging healthcare technologies transformed patient care by envisioning human bodies as quantitative data. This move not only excluded the messy, non-linear, emotional, and unpredictable aspects of embodied illness experiences, it also excluded the experiences of gendered, racialized, and minoritized patients. By examining how future uses of computers in healthcare were imagined from the 1960s onward, this project will show how the development of computational approaches to patient care worked precisely by erasing the human elements of illness and healing. A resulting book manuscript, The Visual History of Computational Health, will narrate the throughline from these early imaginings to the present.

Associated Products

“How to Detect AI Deepfakes and Understand their Ethical Implications” (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: “How to Detect AI Deepfakes and Understand their Ethical Implications”
Author: Kirsten Ostherr
Abstract: Presentation on AI Deepfakes for Texas high school teacher training sponsored by Humanities Texas. Addressed: What is an AI Deepfake?; How to Detect AI Deepfakes; Ethical Implications of AI Deepfakes; In-Class exercises and Assignments for students.
Year: 2024
Audience: K - 12

Responsible AI for Health (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Responsible AI for Health
Author: Kirsten Ostherr
Abstract: This course will be revised and re-taught for Fall 2025 based on the findings of the research project. Course summary: This interdisciplinary course explores how artificial intelligence, machine learning, and related tools are poised to transform healthcare – for better and for worse. Examines the latest uses of these tools in clinical healthcare settings, in public health, and in day-to-day wellness apps. Considers the social, cultural and ethical issues related to the development and application of AI for health. Explores the ways that technology can have unintended consequences.
Year: 2025
Audience: Undergraduate

“Natural Language Processing and Narrative Medicine.” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “Natural Language Processing and Narrative Medicine.”
Abstract: The release of ChatGPT has produced a flurry of excitement and worry over the impact of AI on almost every facet of life on planet Earth. While efforts to develop AI applications for healthcare have slowly gained momentum over the past decade, the accessibility of consumer-facing tools such as ChatGPT has accelerated interest in the efficiencies and discoveries that AI for health might offer, while also raising alarm over the ethical and legal challenges posed by these algorithms. In addition to regulatory concerns around privacy and liability, the application of AI in medicine raises questions of epistemology that Health Humanities researchers are well positioned to address. Humanities scholars have pointed to the need for interpretive agility, tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, and narrative humility in healthcare. But how can these principles operate in an environment dominated by data-driven clinical algorithms that depend on binary logic and inflexible data labeling?
Author: Kirsten Ostherr
Date: 02/26/2024
Location: University of Texas, Austin

“Humanistic AI for Public Health? Opportunities and Cautions.” (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: “Humanistic AI for Public Health? Opportunities and Cautions.”
Author: Kirsten Ostherr
Abstract: Invited lecture for a graduate seminar called "Technology, Entrepreneurship and Applied Innovation in Public Health" at the University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health.
Year: 2024
Audience: Graduate

“From Lived Experiences to Risk Profiles: Locating the Humanity of Health AI." (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “From Lived Experiences to Risk Profiles: Locating the Humanity of Health AI."
Abstract: Invited presentation for the conference titled "Health AI for All," sponsored by IC2 institute at University of Texas, Austin to address the conference theme: “How do we design Health AI to ensure that the benefits of precision health and augmented clinical decision-making are accessible to all segments of society?”
Author: Kirsten Ostherr
Date: 04/04/2024
Location: University of Texas, Austin

“From Lived Experiences to Risk Profiles: Locating the Humanity of Health AI.” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “From Lived Experiences to Risk Profiles: Locating the Humanity of Health AI.”
Abstract: This talk will map out the ways that critical interventions from the Humanities can advance our understanding of the possibilities and limitations of AI for health. Building on the work of scholars who have examined social determinants of health in medicine, we will consider how the field of Health Humanities can address the intersection of these issues to increase equity and justice in the healthcare system.
Author: Kirsten Ostherr
Date: 11/03/2024
Location: Weill-Cornell Medicine, Doha, Qatar

“Telehealth and Healthcare Humanities” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “Telehealth and Healthcare Humanities”
Abstract: Invited keynote for the Medical Education Symposium at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan. Lecture focused on: Definition of telehealth as a modality of virtual health – broadening the frame; Social and ethical issues with telehealth; How can telehealth increase the humanity of healthcare?
Author: Kirsten Ostherr
Date: 09/24/2024
Location: Taiepei, Taiwan

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