Portland OR meetup?

Anyone out there from PDX interested in starting a meetup? I’m a clinical psychologist and I think we need more mental health professionals in these conversation about humane tech. I have a specialty in physician wellness, and the physicians I see tell me that the greatest source of stress in their job is working with poorly designed electronic medical records (EMR) systems. They find the tech cumbersome, detrimental to quality patient care, and dehumanizing to work with. They tell me that it is one of the most significant contributors to physician burnout. There is something seriously wrong when our health care tools are harming the well-being of our health care providers.

Mental health professionals are at the front lines in dealing with the consequences of dehumanizing tech and we need more mental experts in these conversations. I think we have perspectives and expertise worth sharing. So, who in PDX would like to talk?

Dan

4 Likes

I’m so glad you brought this up. It perturbs me to see my doctor type into a computer while she’s talking to me. Even though I understand she’s trying to capture information for analysis and future reference, I find that the typing, computer setup, wires sticking out of the wall, and so forth affect my experience. It all seems less personal, less humane.

Good luck with your meetup. Look forward to hearing the results.

Thank you. Doctors don’t want to be attached to their computers. They want to be people who help people. I’m optimistic we can make cultural and tech changes that will re-humanize medicine.

2 Likes

@Dan_Rubin
Check out this article from the NewYorker last week… it explains the toll tech takes in medical professionals- excellent read and how timely I’d bump into this and your post a week apart- I think you’ll enjoy this based on your introduction Welcome!!

1 Like

@Dan_Rubin this is a good topic. Could you create a new topic about this for the community as a whole, and we can keep this one for the Portland Oregon meetup specifically.

BTW, are you interested in organizing a meetup chapter, or be involved in community meetup activities in general?

Yes, I am interested in starting a Portland chapter. And yes, I will start other threads for other topics. Thank you!

1 Like

I am not in Portland but my PhD research is exploring the extent to which technostress mediates burnout in Health Care Professionals. As such, I am keenly interested in this topic.

1 Like

Hi @Dan_Rubin, happy to see you bring this up. I organize the Portland Community Design Thinkers meetup group, so I’m already leaning into this topic. I’d welcome the chance to get together with you i person here in PDX and chat a bit. Hit me back sometime. Cheers!

Cool, let’s talk!

Dan

Yes, let’s talk! Let me know when you might be free. Lunch from 12-1 on most weekdays are good for me if we can meet near my office in SE.

Dan

I’m in the SE as well, in Foster-Powell. You free at all tomorrow? If not, no worries, I’m off to Atlanta for the rest of the week but back in town again on Dec. 1.
p

Hi Dan! I’m an hour away from Portland and I’m definitely interested in how mental health is affected by technology. My husband and I created a website, betterscreentime.com, where we teach parents positive screen time strategies so they can worry less and connect more with their kids. I’d love to stay in touch as I’m interested in learning more about how we can encourage healthy tech boundaries in order to keep our kids’ mentally healthy. Let me know if that is anything that interests you or that you are familiar with.

Thanks!
Andrea Davis

3 Likes

Let’s try next week. Tomorrow is jam packed. How about Tuesday 12/4?

Sure, I’d love to talk. I also have kids and think about how tech impacts them. I’m interested in how tech is impacting our sense of what is to be human. I see how tech can make people say to manipulate and turn them into machines that can be programed. I like the work of Kai-Fu Lee, who talks about how we used to define ourselves by work, but now that tech can do more and more of the repetitive work that humans used to do, we need to define ourselves based on our ability to love. We need to re-humanize ourselves since some tech tends to dehumanize us, make us less loving and easier to hack and exploit (for example, Facebook, memes, and fake news creating cultural confusion and division, which made FB lots of money and advances extremist politics).
So, I think an important part of the conversation is identifying what makes us human and how we can create tech that protects and uplifts our humanity. That is very much a mental health issue.
Tell me more about your work and interests.

Dan

1 Like

Hello, Dan. I live in Salem (for the time being) but am definitely looking to gather for discussion around UX, data gathering, and “monetizing attention”. August 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the WWW protocol and, to personally mark that milestone, I’m documenting my experience moving from an early web evangelist to a current state of disillusionment.

I get to Portland often and will be attending this Human Centered Design meetup on Dec 13. Perhaps others from this thread will be there too. (https://www.meetup.com/Portland-Accessibility-and-User-Experience-Meetup/events/256505067)

Thank you for suggesting having a Portland group.

Tuesday 12/4 sounds good @Dan_Rubin. Hit me directly at patrick@luma-institute.com and let’s set something up. (Incidentally my meetup group will also be hosting that social event with the PDXHCD collective on Dec. 13) Cheers.

Patrick

@Dan_Rubin I have updated the overview of chapters and added your interest to organize a chapter.

@psharbaugh and @cgaf99 you have some great meetup groups going! I’d like to invite you to read the new Eventful campaign proposal I created the other day, and think of opportunities to combine / cooperate / cross-pollinate in future.

Hi @aschrijver, @Dan_Rubin and I are in the process of planning and organizing a Portland event (tentatively planned for January 17) around the topic of human-centered design + designing for mindful tech.

1 Like

Hi @aschrijver, @Dan_Rubin and I have scheduled a meetup with my Portland group for Jan. 29 around this topic. ‘Addictive By Design: How Our Phones Hijacked Our Lives and What To Do About It.’

We’d love to spread the word within this community and invite any nearby members to join the event. Can you suggest the best way to do that? We’d also very much like to reach out to any other Portland-based members here, but I can’t seem to find a straightforward way to do so. Suggestions?

Many thanks,
Patrick

@Tbear If this works for you, please post your research or what you can disclose in a new topic to share. If you need assistance in how to post topics please let me know!! Would love to hear your work- as I’m a heath care professional.