The use of new and emerging technologies in social and behavioral processes is being done in a variety of fields. From using SMS to collect health-related data from patients, providing farmers with real-time market prices in rural Africa to using telehealth technology to improve care of dispersed populations, fields as diverse as agricultural economics, telecommunication, and engineering are trying to determine key research questions and processes. Importantly, the dominant approach to interdisciplinary research has been the so-called 'parallel play'model in which researchers divide projects along disciplinary lines -often with the hard sciences finding solutions and social sciences beings asked to """"""""sell"""""""" the solutions or promote adoption of a behavior or technology. Working under the assumption that diversity of perspectives can facilitate solving the challenges faced by the use of technology to questions of decision-making and behavior change, people in these diverse fields can converge to create a common language and formulate a concrete agenda for research in this area. The concept of """"""""One Health"""""""" can serve as a unifying framework for these efforts. Several substantive issues drive these efforts including exploring how individuals conceive of their personal health within the larger eco-system (broadly defined), the nature and form of information new and emerging communication technologies can be used to collect and disseminate, and how features of the users and channels interact to influence responses to this information. The approach will include a series of virtual and in-person forums of key experts in diverse fields with 4 goals: 1)Identify and discuss existing research by key forum participants, 2) Create a shared language using in person and technology-enabled interactions, 3)Identify core directions for research that encompasses and benefits from an interdisciplinary approach and find synergies among team members to form project ideas in these areas, 4) Pilot the concept of a corps of translational scholars to facilitate research processes and dissemination. The symposia will result in the formation of research teams in key substantive areas identified by attendees to pursue additional projects in these areas.
New and emerging communication tools such as social media are being widely used in public health. The proposed symposia will provide a transdisciplinary forum for identifying critical research questions for the use of these technologies to address the behaviors and attitudes related to promotion of human health while considering its intersection with animal and ecological health.
| Lapinski, Maria Knight; Funk, Julie A; Moccia, Lauren T (2015) Recommendations for the role of social science research in One Health. Soc Sci Med 129:51-60 |
