## Breadcrumb 1. [Home](/index%2Ephp/) 2. [Overview](/index%2Ephp/academics) 3. [Faculty Members](/index%2Ephp/academics/explore-faculty) 4. [Michelle Wyndham-West](/index%2Ephp/markdownify/node/4040) # Michelle Wyndham-West ![](https://ultima7-its.ocadu.ca/bios/mwyndhamwest/portrait) mwyndhamwest@ocadu.ca Faculty Information Acting Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts & Science Faculty of Arts & Science Office C. Michelle Wyndham-West, Ph.D., is the Graduate Program Director of the Design for Health and Inclusive Design programs and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Design at OCADU University. Michelle is a critically applied medical anthropologist with graduate degrees in socio-cultural and medical anthropology from the University of Toronto and York University respectively. Michelle teaches in the areas of health policy, medical anthropology, and research methodologies and has received undergraduate and graduate teaching awards from OCAD University. Michelle’s research focuses on health equity, gender, public policy systems, and critical co-design methodologies. This research is supported by CIHR, SSHRC, ORF, and EU funding. Additionally, Michelle has published in international journals, including Evidence & Policy, BMJ Open, and Design for Health, and presents research regularly at international conferences, such as at the Society for Applied Anthropology annual meeting. Making Gender: Big Pharma, HPV Vaccine Policy, and Women’s Ontological Decision-Making is her first book and will be published by the University of Toronto Press in May 2023. ### Works #### Virtual care: a design research discovery and strategic futures model for the Canadian healthcare system Design for Health Published: December 31st 2022 [View Article »](https://doi.org/10.1080/24735132.2022.2144498) #### Unpacking the potential of developmental evaluation in codesign work Health Expectations Published: December 7th 2022 [View Article »](https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.13456) #### A narrative-based exploration of aging, precariousness and housing instability among low-income older adults in Canada Cities & Health Published: December 31st 2022 [View Article »](https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2021.1919976) #### Gender and dementia national strategy policymaking: Working toward health equity in Canada through gender-based analysis plus Dementia Published: December 7th 2021 [View Article »](https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301220964621) #### Are you really doing ‘codesign’? Critical reflections when working with vulnerable populations BMJ Open Published: December 7th 2020 ‘Codesign’ and associated terms such as ‘coproduction’ or ‘patient engagement’, are increasingly common in the health research literature, due to an increased emphasis on the importance of ensuring that research related to service/systems development is meaningful to end-users. However, there continues to be a lack of clarity regarding the key principles and practices of codesign, and wide variation in the extent to which service users are meaningfully engaged in the process. These issues are particularly acute when end-users include populations who have significant health and healthcare disparities that are linked to a range of intersecting vulnerabilities (eg, poverty, language barriers, age, disability, minority status, stigmatised conditions). The purpose of this paper is to prompt critical reflection on the nature of codesign research with vulnerable populations, including key issues to consider in the initial planning phases, the implementation process, and final outputs. Risks and tensions will be identified in each phase of the process, followed by a tool to foster reflexivity in codesign processes to address these issues. [View Article »](http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038339) #### Chapter 11: Evolution of Health Care Policy: Deconstructing Divergent Approaches Staying Alive: Critical Perspectives on Health, Illness and Health Care Published: December 31st 2019 #### Betwixt and Between Well and Sick in Cervical Precancer: Canadian Women’s Experiences of Recurring HPV Infections and HPV Vaccination Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Published: December 7th 2018 Background This research fuses the experiences of a precancer diagnosis with the decision-making surrounding a vaccine that can protect against human papillomavirus strains that women may not have been exposed to. The interviewee cohort is of note as half the women were in their 30s and 40s and 75% were over the age of 26. These groupings are often overlooked in media discourses and narrative research surrounding human papillomavirus and the human papillomavirus vaccine. Purpose Womens’ diagnoses and treatment experiences, including colposcopies, biopsies, and Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedures, are chronicled to highlight a liminal, precancerous state—one in which they are not deemed healthy, but nor have they been diagnosed with cancer. These are emotion-filled experiences that are ridden with anxiety and fear, but also ones that are structured with self-care strategies to contain human papillomavirus infections and the risk of cervical cancer. Methods Twenty women who attended Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre’s human papillomavirus vaccination clinic were interviewed and their narratives were documented and analyzed to determine their experiences surrounding human papillomavirus infections and precancer as well as their motivations for human papillomavirus vaccination. Results The decision to undergo human papillomavirus vaccination was a self-care strategy that accompanied treatment procedures and was a means to reduce cervical cancer risk. While encouraged with the human papillomavirus vaccine’s potential to curb cervical cancer, they had a tempered view of the vaccine and its effectiveness in their cases, given their medical histories. Conclusions The research provides an in-depth accounting of an often overlooked grouping in human papillomavirus and human papillomavirus vaccination research and media discourse which, generally, focuses upon middle-school-aged girls and university-/college-aged women. In addition, the research provides recommendations for practice for cervical precancer diagnoses going forward. [View Article »](http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0844562118763496) #### Power and culture in emerging medical technology policymaking: the case of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in Canada Evidence and Policy Published: December 7th 2018 This article captures how scientific uncertainty is negotiated and its implications on public health policy. Through the case study of the Human Papillomavirus vaccine in Canada, we investigated how policymakers engage in ‘sensemaking’, the process whereby policymakers mediate shifting informational terrain to come to an understanding of what events and information mean, how they become significant and how they are acted upon. Key informant interviews reveal that policymakers make decisions amidst uncertainty by invoking public health cultural ideologies and by actively managing interactions with the manufacturer. This reflects a non-linear dispositif that is influenced by the co-production of culture and power. [View Article »](http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/174426417x14845753387144) #### “What’s a Mom to Do?” Negotiating Public Health Literacies Through the Traffic Between Motherhood and Mothering in School-Based HPV Vaccination Programming. Mothering and Literacies Published: December 31st 2013 ### Education #### PhD **Type:** Anthropology York University ### Employment #### Graduate Program Director **Type:** Inclusive Design & Design for Health OCAD University