Distributed Health Interaction
Is a research network that aims to develop best practices in health settings. It is based on an international community of health practitioners and academic researchers that links the health sciences with work in linguistics, ethnography, organizational studies, sociology, psychology and cognitive science.
The DHI network undertakes theoretical, methodological and practical investigations of health interaction using research modalities that include ethnographic fieldwork, action research and medical simulations. We aim to develop and share evidence-based knowledge that contributes to evaluating and developing best practices in hospitals, clinics and elsewhere.
The DHI programme is part of the
Distributed Language Group, and independent of institutional, social, political, and commercial goals.
Health is distributed and interactionalWhile based in bodies, health is not reducible to the individual. As we interact with each other and the world, our well-being is co-determined by our social and ecological setting. Far from being localised, health arises in interaction with people, technologies and the living world: health is distributed.
Health is established, maintained and declines across a lifespan of interactions and a history of communities. Health and our understanding of health are thus inseparable.
To study, understand and improve health, it is thus important to supplement the study of how bodies work with methods that investigate the distributed nature of human interaction and cognition. Indeed, by gaining a clearer view of how cognition and interaction impact on health, we strive to find new ways of making a difference for practitioners and patients in various health settings.