The 9th International Health Humanities Conference

Presentation information

Poster presentation

Theory, Vision, Other

[15] Poster presentation

[15-1] Listening to experiences of health and illness around the world: Introducing the DIPEx International project

*Rika Sakuma Sato1,3, Lorraine Smith 2,3 (1. DIPEx-Japan(Japan), 2. The University of Sydney(Australia), 3. DIPEx International(UK))

Presentation language:English・Japanese

DIPEx (Database of Individual Patient Experiences) is a unique online resource that compiles a wide variety of people’s narratives on experiences of health and illnesses, founded in UK in the 1990’s. The enterprise, after twenty years, has grown into a collaboration of research organizations around the world using a common rigorous qualitative research method to collect and compile people’s experiences. Researchers from 14 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, UK and US) are now involved in the DIPEx International project (www.dipexinternational.org).
DIPEx website is comprised of approximately 250 video and audio clips for each condition, thematically organized to show different aspects of illness experiences. DIPEx-Japan has published 7 websites on health conditions and medical interventions (e.g., breast cancer, dementia, chronic pain, bowel screening, clinical trials, etc.) and as for DIPEx International we have in total over 150 conditions and interventions covered. While the majority of the users are patients and families, the database is increasingly being utilized as a resource for teaching medical professionals, service improvement and cross-national comparative research. In the poster, we will present our ongoing challenges to present polyphonic voices of health and illness around the world.