Tag: health tech

The Sovereignty of Wearables: Indigenous Health and Digital Colonialism in Taiwan

Now that I’ve mentioned it to her, Ms. Pacidal—an Amis Indigenous woman in her 80s—starts to fiddle with the watch on her left hand. It has a black, square, and boxy plastic face, on which shines a dimly lit screen that shows the date and time, location tracking services, and a daily step count. “It’s light,” she says. “In fact, almost forgettable!” It’s secured on Ms. Pacidal’s arm with a rubber strap, and she tells me that she has not taken it off for months. “It goes with me into the shower, when I cook, when I clean. And the battery lasts for almost a week. So it’s almost invisible,” she says. “So invisible,” a nearby care worker interrupts and laughs, “that it’s measuring her vital signs and she doesn’t even know!” (read more...)

Who Decides What We Measure in Health Tech?

At present, there are several problems in women’s health that still remain poorly characterized and understudied. In my research on one such issue, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), it is clear that one of the largest challenges is for studies to capture the complexity of women’s and cycling people’s experiences – a challenge which, up until now, science has struggled to resolve. (read more...)