Transcript Health e-citizenship? Sociotechnical systems and self care

Supporting the self
management of obesity: The
role of ICTs
ICTRI2 seminar, Department of
Health, Wellington House, London
February 15th 2007
3 linked premises
1. People with long term and chronic conditions
will themselves contribute solutions to their
problems
2. These people can devise appropriate and
relevant uses of ICTs to support them to do this
3. 1. and 2. can only be realised if appropriate
sources of information and ICT support are
available to those seeking to self manage their
health conditions
Why obesity?
 'Obesity has rapidly become a serious problem,
with over half of the population recorded as
either overweight or obese. It is essential that
people eat healthily and stay active if they are to
stave off the threat of killer diseases like
cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes and
cancer. But we can’t force people to be healthy
nor tell them how to lead their lives. What we can
do is provide them with the information, advice
and support to make their own choices. And this
job starts with the healthcare professionals
(Department of Health, 2004e, emphasis added).
Information and self care
 Information and support central to self
care agenda:
 expert patient programme
 patient trainers initiative
 Little research into:
 how ‘user engagement’ in self care is
secured and sustained
 role of ICTs in supporting such engagement
Information and communications
technologies
 Why ICTs? What ICTs?
 A ‘sociotechnical’ approach:
 Work: technologies and work practices
 Everyday life: ‘domestication’ of technologies
 Community: technologies and capacity
building
The study
 Local: City of Brighton and Hove
 University partnership with statutory,
voluntary and community sectors
 Previous related research and partnership
 Overall aim:
 ‘to examine the potential for increased,
innovative and effective uses of information
and communication technologies (ICTs) in the
self management of obesity in one locality’
Objectives
1. to map the ‘information landscapes’ of those
2.
3.
4.
5.
involved in the self management of obesity from
provider and user viewpoints
to identify the opportunities and challenges posed
by ICTs in the self management of obesity
to identify the specific IT, information and health
literacy skills and needs of those seeking to make
use of ICTs in this context
to design and run a series of participatory learning
workshops to address skills needs and identify
ways to better organise local health information to
support obesity self management
to evaluate the impact of participation in these
workshops in terms of its ability to lead to
increased, innovative and effective uses of ICTs to
support the self management of obesity in one
locality
Methods, stages, outputs
KEY
Project stages
Figure 1: Project flow diagram
outputs
Provider
mapping
Focus
groups
User
mapping
Assets
and
needs
analysis
Participatory
learning
workshops
Learning
support
materials
User Survey Report
New ICT tools
New information
design ideas
evaluation
Database of
local health
info provision
Consensus
event
New
community
health ICT
initiatives
Final
report
New
community
health ICT
initiatives
Guidelines for good practice
in local health information
provision
Innovation in health sector
 ‘Success’ in innovation:
 ‘the development, empowerment, and
emerging self-efficacy of vulnerable
communities’ rather than ‘individual behaviour
change in line with instructions passed down
from central agencies’ (Greenhalgh, 2004,
p10).
Research team
Audrey Marshall, Dr Liz Guy (SIRU)
Professor Helen Smith, Dr Leslie Carlin (BSMS)
Mark Walker (SCIP/community IT consultant)
Project Administrator: Laura Bottomley
[email protected]
Project Director: Prof Flis Henwood
[email protected]