ACM Interactive Health ’26 Workshop: Developing a Vocabulary to Critique Design of Healthcare Technologies
Authors: Safra Martinussen, Mai Hartmann, Niklas Kline Lange Frost, Nicklas Ravn, Pelin Karaturhan,Anna Vallgårda
Abstract
In this one-day workshop we aim to collaboratively step towards developing a framework or vocabulary to critique and reflect on granular attributes and properties of design and interaction of healthcare technology in conjunction with the relational and situated aspects inherent in the larger assemblage it is part of. Many healthcare technologies are designed with efficiency and optimization as their primary focus, paying little attention to the experience, context and relations the artifact enters when deployed. We experience a mismatch between healthcare technologies and the newer vocabularies for engaging critically with the design and interaction of artifacts. It is essential to bring together researchers engaging with fourth wave approaches, healthcare technologies, and healthcare practitioners towards bridging this gap.
Date and Location: Sunday, July 5, 2026, Porto, Portugal
Call for Participation
Healthcare technologies increasingly mediate how care is delivered, experienced, and managed, often in intimate and continuous ways. These systems span a wide range of forms, from wearable sensors and implanted devices to algorithmic decision-support systems and at-home treatment infrastructures. While these technologies promise improved care and efficiency, they also introduce new forms of vulnerability, dependency, and complexity, raising important questions about design, interaction, embodiment, and power.
This one-day in-person workshop invites researchers, designers, and practitioners to participate in a collaborative exploration of how we can better describe, analyze, and critique the design of healthcare technologies. Our goal is to begin to articulate a shared vocabulary that captures both the fine-grained properties, attributes, and qualities of these systems, as well as the entangled relational, situated, and networked assemblages in which they are embedded.
The workshop will be structured around a series of collaborative activities, including small-group discussions, comparative and diffractive readings, analytical exercises, and collective reflection. Participants will work in pairs or small groups to compare cases, articulate analytical concepts, and develop shared insights. Throughout the day, we will document and synthesize emerging perspectives, with the aim of producing a collective written outcome. Participants will be invited to contribute to a joint publication presenting insights from the workshop, with opportunities for co-authorship.
Submit your material here. See the details for submission requirements below!
Workshop Plan
* Mapping The Variety of Healthcare Technologies
As an initial framing exercise and collective introduction, we propose to begin the meeting by mapping the range of healthcare technologies involved in participants’ research. This activity will address, though not be limited to, the following questions: What constitutes a
healthcare technology? How do these technologies relate to and differ from one another? What role does proximity to the body play in defining these systems?
* Interactions Through Bodies
We will examine how interactions circulate through bodies, devices, and multiple human actors. How are interactions mediated through physiological processes? How can we trace continuous or indirect interaction pathways, and where do these interactions begin and end within complex
systems?
* Drawing on Existing Vocabularies
Participants will reflect on current conceptual frameworks and vocabularies used to describe healthcare technologies. Where do these frameworks succeed, where do they fall short, and which terms or concepts are missing when analyzing the design and interaction of healthcare technologies?
* Attributes of Relationality
We will investigate how different modes of interaction foster relationships between human and non-human actors. How can relationality—an increasingly recognized ontological dimension in HCI—help us understand the co-constitution of users, devices, and care practices?
Workshop Proposal
Supplementary Material with Example Cases
Call for Submissions
Interested participants are invited to submit a short description of a specific healthcare technology (case) involved in their research and an initial reflection on one or more of the workshop topics in relation to the specific technology and it’s context (1-2 pages). You can see the supplementary material PDF above for inspiration. Visual supplements are much encouraged.
The description may include (but is not limited too) the following questions:
What is it for? What does it do? Who uses it? Are there multiple users? What are their roles? and how does that affect their interaction with the device(s)? Is the specific healthcare technology part of a larger network of devices? what do they do and how are they entangled? Describe the relations. What is it’s proximity to the body? How does the device interact with the patient’s body? What data are collected? How are the data used? And by whom? In which contexts?
Deadline for EARLY submissions: Wednesday, 18 March, 2026 (AoE)
Notification of (early) acceptance: Thursday, 26 March, 2026 (AoE)
Deadline for LATE submissions: Tuesday, 7 April, 2026 (AoE)
Notification (late) acceptance: Monday, 13 April, 2026 (AoE)
Please submit your proposal here.