Event Description
A dissertation investigating the rise of online medical platforms (OMPs) in China using a mixed-methods approach. Over the past decade, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, OMPs have surged in popularity, enabling people to consult doctors virtually and to access a broad array of digital health services. Although platform designers present these tools as cutting-edge solutions to entrenched socio-medical problems, past studies of digital health and other technologies indicate one crucial critique: the success of technological innovation is always contingent upon existing social infrastructures, local contexts, and enduring inequalities. This talk shares theoretical concepts—contextualized utilization, mediated and diluted authority, and digital re-stratification—to illuminate the complex entanglements among human actors, digital platforms, and socio-medical environments. It will share insights on how to establish a more equitable, accessible, and efficient digital health system.
Event Speaker
Yingzhe Zhu, graduate student in sociology at Northwestern University
Event Information
Free and open to the public; registration required. For more information, please visit the event webpage or email Yanze Yu at [email protected].
Hosted by the China Reading and Innovation Lab at Columbia University.
