JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Cultural adaptations of digital health innovations (DHIs) are a growing field. However, DHIs can increase health inequities. While completing exploratory work for the cultural adaptation of the Ned Clinic virtual survivorship application, we identified structural considerations that provided a space to design digitally connected and collective care.

Objective:

This study used a CBPR and UCD process to develop a cultural adaptation of the Ned Clinic application, while looking beyond to design to intervene in structural inequities.

Methods:

The design process included primary data collection and qualitative analysis to explore and distill design principles, an iterative design phase with a multidisciplinary team, and a final evaluation phase with participants who participated throughout the design process as a form of member-checking and validation.

Results:

Participants indicated that they found the final adapted prototype to be acceptable, appropriate, and feasible for their use. The changes made to adapt the prototype were not specifically culturally Chinese. Instead, we identified ways to strengthen connections between the survivor and their providers, improve accessibility to resources, and honour participants’ desires for relationality, accountability, and care.

Conclusions:

We grounded the use of UCD to develop a prototype design that supports the act(s) of caring through digital technology by identifying and designing to resist structures that create health inequities in the lives of this community of survivors. By designing for collective justice, we can provide accessible, feasible, and relational care with digital health through the application of Indigenous and Black feminist ways of being and knowing.