Hi there, welcome to my personal and professional site, where I very occasionally publish blog posts.
My research is broadly about digital media for helping people access and understand evidence and make decisions about health. Using my training in human factors engineering, I design for the way people are, rather than for the way we wish they were; and I work to adapt technologies to people, rather than requiring people to adapt to the technologies. My goal is always to design systems that help people.
Other miscellany about me: I am married and have two children. I like running, field sports and being outside doing things like hiking, canoeing, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. My family and I live in Quebec City, which is unceded traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat. Since living here, we have also taken up downhill skiing, which is much more fun than I knew except that I can no longer keep up with my children. I have been living with type 1 diabetes for over four decades now. I like books and board games. I grew up on Treaty 4 territory in Saskatchewan, where there is no daylight savings. Time changes surprise and frustrate me every spring and fall.
Looking for my bio? Here is a standard version: “Holly Witteman, PhD, is the Canada Research Chair in Human-Centred Digital Health and a Professor in the Department of Family & Emergency Medicine, Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada. Quebec City is unceded traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat. Dr. Witteman is a scientist in the VITAM Research Centre for Sustainable Health, the Research Centre of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval, and an Affiliate Investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada. With an interdisciplinary background in human factors engineering and social sciences, her research is about how we can achieve human-centredness in health-related domains, including a focus on how best to adapt digital health technology to people rather than expecting people to adapt to technology. She specializes in human-computer interaction in health education, risk communication and decision making, including design methods and system changes to support inclusive user-, human- and patient-centredness. Her work as Principal Investigator has been funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS), the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI, United States), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN), Sentinelle Nord, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).”
6 thoughts on “About Me”
I’m delighted that you are sharing yourself in a more personal – though interconnected – way with us. We’ve gotten to know a lot about you indirectly through your son’s blog, but it’s good to hear about you from you. I look forward to checking in on you often.
Bonjour Holly, my name is Michel Godbout and have been living with T1D for over 45 years now. I just came across your name after listening to a podcast. Your experience is so similar to mine even though I am a man. I hid my T1D for over 35 years and in my early years as an adventure guide did not get the some of jobs I knew I could do. I now have hypo unawareness after all these years of trying to keep my BGs low. Have been on a pump for the last eight years as well as a CGM which is the biggest game changer for me. Thanks for opening up and sharing your experience with T1D. I have been active with this group “Connected In Motion” based out of Southern Ontario and have even been brought out of retirement to help guide a few canoe trips for them. I have established a Men’s T1D mental health group on Zoom going into our 3rd year, we have about 50 members, half from Canada and half from the US. I’m not a mental health professional but moderate our discussions. I retired 3 years ago from teaching primary school for 30 years, my last ten years as a grade one teacher. before that I worked with Outward bound while attend Lakehead University doing a double degree, Honours in Outdoor Recreation and Geography. I have led youth expeditions in Siberia and Baffin Island as well as down in Guyana in the jungle all while living with T1D on my own. I try to spend more time outside every day hiking, canoeing/kayaking(whitewater and flat water),I use to be a dog musher both my boys grew up sitting in the sled when they were wee lads, and I am a telemark skier. I now live in a community called Mono about an hour north of Toronto, I also have a very support partner and two adult boys with no signs of T1D. We now operate a small family farm producing Maple Syrup and Honey (my wife is the beekeeper). I wish I could be more open and express myself more to the T1D community.
Bonjour Michel, wow!! It’s wonderful to hear from you. Your experiences and adventures in the outdoors sound fantastic. Hiking or being on the water every day must be wonderful (I hope to do the same in my future retirement!) and I’ve heard great things about Connected In Motion. It sounds like you are providing a lot of support to others. Thank you for what you do for men with T1D. That’s an under-served group when it comes to mental health and T1D.