FICTION
Fiction allows me to facilitate dialogue on important public health issues such as responsible healthy technology use, vaccination, and the environment. Through fiction, we can inspire young people to become more engaged citizens by sparking their imagination, empathy, and critical thinking about the world around them.
The Antidotes: Pollution Solution
Patty wrote The Antidotes: Pollution Solution with her 10-year-old son, Gabriel, noting how he not only inspired the characters and the story’s development, but also her as a mother.
“Children needed to return to normalcy from the pandemic,” says Dr. Mechael. “It is tricky to discuss challenging topics with children in age-friendly ways, but it is so important. It would be beneficial for kids to read the book in collaboration with school science programs as well as with their parents. I want to inspire and empower a whole new generation to understand public health, technology, and the environment – and what they can do today and hopefully as the world’s future leaders.”
NON-FICTION
I have written extensively in my professional and academic publications on public health. I co-edited the book mHealth in Practice. My work has appeared in The Huffington Post and is well represented in renowned health journals and text books. I am a regular contributor to AIMed, writing about responsible AI practices and global health to reduce the amplification of sexism and racism through technology.
mHealth in Practice
There has recently been an explosion of interest around the application of mobile communication technologies to support health initiatives in developing countries (mHealth). As a result, there is a need to promote and share rigorous research for better informed policy, programming, and investment. There are, however, few platforms for the exchange of information and proven practice between practitioners and researchers.
The subtopic of prevention, well-being, and health promotion within mHealth is particularly ripe for deeper exploration. While many reports tout the potential of mobiles to influence behaviour change for health, there is limited knowledge about what works (and what does not work), and about how to evaluate current and future programs. This is a focused edited volume with contributions from leading researchers and practitioners to identify best practices in using mobile technologies to promote healthy behaviours (and reduce unhealthy ones) in resource-constrained settings with a special focus on developing countries.
This topic is inherently interdisciplinary. Though the opportunities to leverage mobile phones for health are new, the challenges confronting researchers and practitioners are well-established and theoretically complex, with roots in decades of work on mediated behaviour change campaigns and theories.
