Maia L. Jacobs

Cancer navigation: opportunities and challenges for facilitating the breast cancer journey

Cancer navigation programs help patients overcome emotional, financial, and logistical challenges not typically addressed by the medical system. In this paper, we provide a detailed description of a rural cancer navigation organization, specifically detailing the roles collaboration and technology play in supporting navigation work. Examining navigation from a CSCW perspective, we see that navigation is a collaborative care system requiring coordination with patients, providers, and other navigators. Our study reveals a number of design opportunities for supporting navigation in the areas of resource monitoring, knowledge transfer, case management, long term navigation, and development of best practices. Supporting cancer navigation will be a critical step towards improving the healthcare experience for cancer patients.

Caring About Sharing: Couples' Practices in Single User Device Access

Most devices today are developed adhering to a one-user paradigm. Yet within households, couples are often sharing devices and accounts. In this paper we take an in-depth look at sharing practices and preferences of cohabiting couples, and discuss the nuances of existing practices surrounding accounts and devices. We present a qualitative interview and diary study with ten couples, consisting of 20 individual interviews, and individual 8-day diaries. Dichotomous access models do not reflect the sharing practices of our couples; in which intent, access, and utilization all characterized sharing behaviors. We present a detailed description of the intentional and unintentional sharing practices our participants used in their day to day interactions and discuss the different challenges that particularly one type of content pose in terms of issues of privacy. We discuss implications for accounts and devices based on the ways in which content was shared and hidden among collocated couples. We provide a structured account of these sharing practices to inform the design of multi-user settings within future technologies.

The Future of Pervasive Health

During the May 2016 Pervasive Health Conference Workshop, participants identified five general themes related to pervasive health solutions that must be addressed: technological challenges and opportunities, adoption and adherence, open data, methods and ethical issues, and education. Here, the authors discuss each of these themes in more detail.

Articulating a Patient-Centered Design Space for Cancer Journeys

Cancer journeys, encompassing patients’ cancer experiences through survivorship, are complex and diverse. Individuals must cope with numerous physical and emotional challenges, balancing clinical tasks alongside responsibilities of daily life. Understanding the breadth of factors that contribute to a patient’s cancer experience presents a critical challenge in developing holistic patient-centered technology. To further our understanding of the cancer journey, we conducted focus groups and interviews with 31 breast cancer patients. We present a cancer journey framework depicting the responsibilities, challenges, and personal impacts patients face while transitioning from diagnosis through post-treatment survivorship. Through this work, we aim to aid the development of health tools that consider a patient’s cancer journey and health needs more broadly, supporting patient’s health management alongside the complexities and priorities of daily life.