- About Me
- About My Mentor
- About My Project: Understanding and Learning from Patient Testimonials in Online Communities
- My Blog
About Me
My name is Riddhavee Kapadia (she/her) ‘25. I go to Colby College and am a rising junior. I am double majoring in Computational Biology and Spanish, and want to add a data science minor. I’m interested in going into public health, and considering doing further research in the field.
About My Mentor
My professor is Rua M. Williams (they/them). As taken from their profile on Purdue, Professor Rua Williams is an Assistant Professor in the User Experience Design program at Purdue University. They are a Just Tech Fellow with the Social Science Research Council. They study interactions between technology design, computing research practices, and Disability Justice. Dr. Williams deploys Feminist and Anti-Racist approaches to Technoscience, Critical disability Studies, and Science and Technology Studies in the design and evaluation of technological systems to simultaneously illustrate injustice in technology as well as marginalized users’ own practices of resistance through those same technologies. Read more about my professor on their site: http://www.ruamae.com/
About My Project: Understanding and Learning from Patient Testimonials in Online Communities
My project aims to unravel some of the complex issues surrounding the power dynamics in healthcare and how people of color, women and disabled individuals are perceived, using testimonial posted on social media under the hashtags #DoctorsAreDickheads and #PatientsAreDickheads.
In today’s world of social media, discussions about healthcare experiences are no longer confined to doctor’s offices. They’re happening online, and platforms like Twitter, Reddit, blog posts and editorials provide a unique space for people to share their encounters within the healthcare system. Some hashtags, like #DoctorsAreDickheads, have gained significant traction.
So, my project’s big question is: What does a qualitative analysis of patient testimonials under the #DoctorsAreDickheads hashing reveal about inadequacies in the current paradigm of medical service provision?
When people share their stories under this hashtag, it helps shed light on how power imbalances between doctors and patients play out. I will be digging into a range of sources - from those viral tweets to in-depth Reddit discussions and thought-provoking editorials - to get a holistic picture. By analyzing these narratives, I hope to uncover the nuances of power dynamics, the dynamics between patients and physicians, and the ways in which individuals are perceived within the healthcare system.