Visualizing health practice to treat diabetes

  • Authors:
  • Jeana Frost;Brian Smith

  • Affiliations:
  • MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA;MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA

  • Venue:
  • CHI '02 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

This research is about how to help diabetics reflect upon and improve their own health practice by collecting and visualizing health related information. We introduced a new type of data collection to diabetics, photography, to complement the data they usually collect, blood sugar levels. Diabetics shoot pictures of meals, exercise, work, play and anything else they feel impacts health. We combine the quantitative glucose measurements with qualitative portraits of action into unified data visualizations. In doing so, we hope to make the relationship between physiology and behavior an object for discussion and reflection. More so, we hope that diabetics who viewed these data will begin to develop new interpretations of their lifestyles that will ultimately lead to healthier activities.