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Seminar - April 14, 2011


Presentation Date: April 14, 2011

4:15 pm
Location:  HSEB Room 4100B 

Presented by:

Bradford W. Hesse, Ph.D.
Chief, Health Comm. & Informatics Research Branch, Behavioral Research
Program Div. of Cancer Control & Population Sciences NIH

Presentation Title:

Participating in Health: Technology Mediated Social Participation in Health and Healthcare

BIO:

Bradford (Brad) Hesse was appointed Chief of the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB) in November 2006. He served as the Acting Chief of HCIRB from 2004–2006.

Dr. Hesse's professional focus lies in bringing the power of health communication technologies to bear on the problem of eliminating death and suffering from cancer, a cause to which he remains steadfastly dedicated. While at the NCI, he has championed several initiatives that evaluate and progress the science of cancer communication and informatics, two of which include the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) and the Centers of Excellence in Cancer Communication (CECCR).

Prior to his work at the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Hesse conducted research in the interdisciplinary fields of human computer interaction, health communication, medical informatics, and computer-supported decision making. In 1988, he served as a postdoctoral member of the Committee for Social Science Research on Computing at Carnegie Mellon University, and subsequently co-founded the Center for Research on Technology at the American Institutes for Research in Palo Alto, California in 1991. Working in a contract environment before coming to NCI, Dr. Hesse directed projects for the Departments of Education and Labor, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health. He has also provided usability services to Apple Computer, Hewlett Packard, Xerox, Microsoft, Sun, and Netscape.

Dr. Hesse currently serves on the board of advisors for the American Psychological Association's online resource, PsycINFO, and is a member of the American Psychological Society, the Association for Computing Machineries, Special Interest Group on Human Computer Interaction (SIG-CHI), the American Medical Informatics Association, the International Communication Association, and the Usability Professionals Association.

 ABSTRACT

On August 3, 2009, a group of preeminent computer scientists published an open letter to the President of the United States explaining that the new and emerging phenomenon of 'technology mediated social participation' might offer a solution to the country's biggest challenges in science, economic development, and health. On December 16, 2010, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) reiterated that conclusion, with a plea for multidisciplinary research on the networking and information technology architectures that would enable greater participation in issues related to health and healthcare. This talk will describe a research agenda as it is emerging within the Department of Health and Human Services to "liberate public health data," and to empower patients, clinicians, and communities through participative, "Health 2.0" architectures.