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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Peter C Fleming, BA1, Kathryn Donhauser, BA/BS1, Timothy D Dye, PhD2, Ann Dozier, PhD1, Nancy P. Chin, MPH, PhD2, and Juan Barrios, MD3. (1) Division of Public Health Practice/Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester, 611 Elwood Avenue Box 324, Rochester, NY 14642, (2) Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester, 601 Elmwood Avenue -- Box 324, Rochester, NY 14642, (3) LINCOS, Foundation for Sustainable Development, Interlink 897, P.O. Box. 02-5635, Miami, FL 33102, Costa Rica
“Technologies will lead to healthier lives.” This widely held belief has contributed to global technological revolutions linking individuals across previously inaccessible margins. Information and communication technology (ICT) and biotechnology can enhance economic and social development resulting in healthier lives for individuals, families and communities. Our team studied ten remote Dominican Republic villages each equipped with LINCOS, a converted shipping container including Internet, communication and telemedicine capabilities. Through LINCOS-based projects communities can access technological resources promoting economic upturns, enhancing personal knowledge and creating healthier lives. Successful project deployment requires a foundation in community needs, priorities and interests. Rapid Assessment Procedures (RAP), examines each community’s vital issues that make technology deployment successful at a grassroots level, foster community empowerment and ultimately achieve health improvements. As experts in maternal and child health and public health, we concentrated on community processes that influence health. RAP, an anthropology-based method, elicits descriptive information in a cultural context through ethnographic interviews, focus groups, and participant observations. Our purpose included understanding the local perceptions of community health priorities and technologies’ perceived barriers and opportunities. Team members observed everyday life activities that could be affected by technological resources and compared individuals’ ideas toward technology usage with actual use. While each community represented diverse community health issues, each had citizens open to potential benefits from globalization and new technologies. Creating community technology projects based in understanding social structures, cultural differences, and public health, provides for individualization to improve health, and personalize technologies, while avoiding common technology pitfalls and failures.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Technology, Rural Communities
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.