A few weeks ago, Amy Moran-Thomas and 20 students in her class 21A.311 (The Social Lives of Medical Objects) were gathered around a glucose meter, a jar of test strips, and various spare medical parts in the MIT Museum seminar room, talking about how to make them work better.
The class had just heard a presentation from the president of the Belize Diabetes Association in Dangriga, Norma Flores, a ...
**Steelman:** Moran-Thomas’s work exemplifies how ethnographic research can expose systemic flaws in medical technology and healthcare delivery. By centering patient and community experiences—such as insulin spoilage in Belize or pulse oximeter inaccuracies—she reveals how design biases and structural inequities perpetuate health disparities. Her collaborative projects, like the "Sugar Atlas" and seismic monitoring in Pennsylvania, demonstrate a commitment to participatory science, where margina...