HCI and health: Learning from interdisciplinary interactions

Abstract

HCI has multidisciplinary roots and has drawn from and contributed to different disciplines, including computer science, psychology, sociology, and medicine. There is a natural overlap between health and HCI researchers, given their joint focus on utilising technologies to better support people's health and wellbeing. However, the best digital health interventions are not simply the result of the 'application' of HCI to the domain of healthcare, but emerge when researchers from both camps seek to overcome differences in disciplinary practices, traditions, and values in order to collaborate more effectively and productively. We propose a special interest group (SIG) to include interdisciplinary researchers (i.e., participants active in both communities) as well as researchers from either discipline, but with interests in the other field.