This research is being conducted through the Svoboda Diaries Project (SDP), a digital humanities effort within the University of Washington based on the diaries of a British steamship worker during 19th-century Ottoman Iraq. This study aims to assess how students from varying academic backgrounds think and learn on a conceptual level and analyze how this influences their interactions with a digital humanities resource. We are conducting this research in hopes of improving the SDP website and contributing to generalizable knowledge regarding facilitated learning with digital tools. We are performing an interview study that employs two main methods used in usability testing: concept mapping and the think-aloud protocol. Concept maps are defined as graphical representations of one’s conceptual understanding of a topic, and the information falling within that topic. The think-aloud protocol is a research method involving participant’s verbalizing their thought process concurrently with the tasks being performed. During the interview, participants will create their own concept maps of their area of study, followed by a usability test on the image gallery feature of the SDP website, and lastly a second concept map activity where participants will map out the image gallery itself. The interviews will be analyzed using qualitative data analysis methods, and concept maps will be scored both qualitatively and quantitatively. By examining students from diverse academic backgrounds, we can analyze how they interact differently with our digital humanities resource, apply it to their field, and characterize how they think conceptually about topics. This research will contribute to the Svoboda Diaries Project by enabling us to make quality improvements to our website and gain insights to enhance our efforts within the digital humanities domain. Findings from the study may also be valuable when thinking critically about how students think about and interact with digital humanities resources as a whole.

Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes and stereotypes in patient-provider communication that can lead to discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, gender, or other characteristics. This disproportionately impacts historically marginalized communities, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and/or Questioning people (LGBTQ+). Although interventions have been developed to improve provider awareness of implicit bias, there has been little exploration of patient perspectives. With the help of my team, I conducted an analysis of 7 previously conducted co-design workshops with 32 BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people to understand patient perspectives on interventions to mitigate the impact of provider implicit bias in healthcare interactions. These workshops included group discussions about personal experiences with healthcare discrimination and a storyboarding activity to envision solutions for improving patient-provider interactions. Across workshops, participants created 13 storyboards that depict solutions in a primary care setting, several of which focus on improving patient-provider communication and promoting self-advocacy and empowerment. Through our collaborative qualitative analysis, my team and I identified two prominent themes from the workshops: communication tools and patient advocates. Participants shared experiences of feeling dismissed and unheard during healthcare visits, leading to storyboard proposals of communication tools, such as "smart boards" that allow patients to describe their symptoms in a nuanced manner. Another storyboard proposed a "panic button" that helps patients ask for help or request a different provider. Other storyboards focus on strategies to hold providers accountable, such as a "patient advocate" who approaches the provider about the patient's experience of discrimination and recommends a communication training intervention that raises awareness of bias. These findings can inform future research on interventions to address implicit bias in provider-patient communication. By prioritizing patient perspectives, we can create a healthcare system that is equitable and inclusive for all.

Emotional obstacles affecting those living with chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) are a pain point that often lacks support. Emotional obstacles include feelings of depression, anxiety, body image issues, experiencing isolation, or feeling unheard, which can impact one’s quality of life. Support systems, or individuals who provide emotional or physical support, can help people manage the effects of these obstacles to support illness self-management. Research on IBD and emotional support demonstrate that many people do not know how to best support their loved ones with IBD. Poor understanding of patients’ needs often results in ineffective support that is not perceived by IBD patients as beneficial; support system members are perceived as being overly worried, being hyper-fixated on physical IBD symptoms, or trying to distract the patient from emotional pain. These strategies carry the risk of IBD patients suppressing their emotional obstacles, withdrawing from their support system, and struggling on their own. I want to improve social support systems for IBD patients. As a first step, I administered online surveys asking people with IBD what emotional obstacles they face, and how these burdens affect their daily life. To date, respondents (n = 57) reported experiencing body image issues (57%), anxiety (68%), feeling hindered from their potential (51%), depression (66%), and social isolation (61%). Respondents stated that their emotional obstacles inhibit their IBD self-management (73%), ability to follow medical advice (38%), and ability to follow their medication regime (40%). These findings characterize common emotional obstacles and key impacts on self-management, a principal factor in disease remission. As we continue to survey people with IBD, we are conducting follow-up interviews to understand their experience and support needs in greater depth to inform improvements to social support systems.