Research Opportunities in Sociotechnical Interventions for Health Disparity Reduction

Abstract: The implicit and explicit biases built into our computing systems are becoming increasingly clear -- they impact everything from targeting of advertisements to how we are identified as people. These biases disproportionately affect marginalized groups -- people who are excluded from mainstream social, economic, cultural, or political life -- more acutely. While these biases can affect all aspects of our lives, from leisure to criminal justice to personal finances, they are all the more critical in the context of health and healthcare due to their significant personal and societal implications. In this interdisciplinary workshop, we explored how to design and build health systems for diverse populations through the following disciplinary lenses. The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) sponsored a two-day workshop titled Sociotechnical Interventions for Health Disparity Reduction in collaboration with the leadership of the Society for Behavioral Medicine's (SBM) 39th Annual Meeting on Monday, April 9 and Tuesday, April 10, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The workshop's goal was to bring together leading researchers in computing, health informatics, behavioral medicine, and health disparities to develop an integrative research agenda focused on sociotechnical interventions to reduce health disparities and improve the health of marginalized populations.