About me
I have a PhD in Informatics from the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, where I worked under the supervision of Dr. Yunan Chen and Dr. Kai Zheng in the Health and Informatics lab. My research interests lie at the intersections of Human Computer Interaction, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, and Health. My research focuses on how data tracking technologies can support, change, and impact individuals’ health information needs and health behaviors, particularly in domains which are often stigmatized and among people who are often ignored or marginalized by the medical system and technology industry.
With the popularity of self-tracking technologies and the datafication of healthcare, healthcare consumers, including patients, caregivers, and healthy individuals, now have access to extensive personal data to inform their health decisions. Because such decisions can be serious and life changing, I investigate how the increased use of patient-generated health data (PGHD) influences individuals’ health behaviors, relationships, and the broader organizational, technological, policy, and societal factors that shape their data work and personal health information management activities.
Recent News
- 10.20.22 - I participated in the 2022 CHIWORK symposium with a conversation about Data Work in Healthcare: Healthcare Providers’ and Patients’ Perspectives
- 02.28.22 - 🏆 I'm beyond honored to share that I was selected as the 2022 iSchool Dissertation Award winner! I'm so incredibly thankful to so many people, especially to my participants, my advisor Yunan Chen, and the members of my committee: Kai Zheng, Melissa Mazmanian, Daniel Epstein, and Stephen Schueller!
- 06.11.21 - 🎓 I finished my PhD and now I am officially Dr. Mayara Costa Figueiredo!
- 03.15.21 - 🏅 I am thrilled to share that our paper “Health Data in Fertility Care: An Ecological Perspective” has received an Honorable Mention Award at CHI 2021! (Pre-print)
- 12.22.20 - The paper I co-authored with Dr. Clara Caldeira (lead author), "Towards Supporting Data-Driven Practices in Stroke Telerehabilitation Technology," has been accepted to CSCW 2021!
- 10.12.20 - 🏅 I am very happy to share that our paper “Using Data to Approach the Unknown: Patients’ and Healthcare Providers’ Data Practices in Fertility Challenges” has received an Honorable Mention Award at CSCW 2020!
- 07.10.20 - The paper I co-authored with Mustafa Hussain (lead author), "A scoping review of qualitative research in JAMIA: past contributions and opportunities for future work," has been accepted to JAMIA!
- 06.17.20 - I am very honored and thrilled to announce that I am one of the recipients of the 2020 Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant!
Selected Awards/Honors
- 2022 iSchools 2022 Doctoral Dissertation Award Winner
- 2021 CHI Honorable Mention Award
- 2020 CSCW Honorable Mention Award
- 2020 Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant ($24,200)
- 2020 Miguel Velez Endowment Scholarship, University of California, Irvine (one quarter of tuition and stipend)
- 2020 Roberta Ellen Lamb Endowment Memorial Fellowship ($10,000)
- 2020 CHI 2020 Doctoral Consortium Travel Funding, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- 2019 Honorable mention award, the 2019 MaxQDA #ResearchforChange Grant
- 2019 NSF travel grant to participate in the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics
- 2017 3rd place in the Annual Symposium of American Medical Informatics Association students’ competition
- 2016 UCI Graduate Dean's Recruitment Fellowship
- 2016 UCI Chair’s Award
- 2009-2011 Graduate Fellowship, CNPQ, Brazil
- 2010 DAAD Winter Scholarship (Deutschlandkundlicher Winterkurs), Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
- 2008 Brazilian Computer Society Prominent Students Award, SBC, Brazil