Created in 2020, the Chair aims to study the use and design of health technologies by Francophones (e.g., tele-homecare, tele-consultations, wearable technologies and smart sensors, and AI technologies).

Research program

The Chair aims to foster a better understanding of issues related to the use and design of digital health technologies, in light of the specific challenges that Francophones face. Using a co-design methodology, Sylvie Grosjean seeks to determine, among other things, the conditions under which health tech solutions are acceptable, or not, in order to incorporate them into the design of these health technologies. The aim is not so much to focus solely on the technological device itself but rather to carefully consider the acceptability criteria for new practices that are linked to or arise from the use of digital health technologies in a French-speaking context. The research program has three foci:

  1. Identifying the reasons and criteria that make a digital health technology socially acceptable to French-speaking users (in Canada and France).
  2. Developing a co-design methodology and proposing design and evaluation tools for these digital health technologies that take into account the criteria that make them acceptable to Francophones and facilitate their integration into care practices.
  3. Assessing how well the co-design methodology and proposed design and evaluation tools can be transferred to other French-speaking countries.

Taking a sociotechnical approach, Sylvie Grosjean explores the complex relationships between technology and society to understand how digital health technologies can be integrated into clinical and care practices. Her co-design methodology is narrative, negotiated, and focussed on interaction, allowing us to think collectively about social practices, consider how to ensure that knowledge is explicit, and bring a shared reality to light. She will use various complementary methods involving key actors (e.g., health professionals, patients, researchers, designers) to meet the objectives of the three research foci.

Chairholder

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