For this week’s reading, I chose Heller & Leeder’s journal, “Distributing Knowledge Creation to Include Underrepresented Populations” (2025). This paper talks about how research and education often leave out diverse or underrepresented groups, which creates bias in the knowledge we have (Heller & Leeder, 2025, p. 252). It acknowledges that sharing knowledge through online and distance education is common today, but creating knowledge in a way that includes people from different places is still not widely done (Heller & Leeder, 2025, p. 253).  However, when research includes the experiences of people from various communities, it becomes more useful locally and more likely to influence policies and actions (Heller & Leeder, 2025, p. 253).

Something interesting that I found from the article was how it discussed three issues that show the need for distributed knowledge creation, and that one was colonial bias in knowledge systems. They explain that many academic systems still center Western ways of thinking, and that scholars from places like India and Mexico have pointed out that Western knowledge is often seen as “universal”, pushing out other perspectives (Heller & Leeder, 2025, p. 255). The authors argue that addressing this bias requires actively including underrepresented voices in research and education, which can help create more equitable  and meaningful knowledge that challenges existing structures.

As a health informatics student, learning about inequities in healthcare delivery has made me passionate about finding ways to make health systems  (or processes) more inclusive and equitable. This article stood out to me because it emphasizes the importance of including underrepresented populations in the research population itself, as active contributors to knowledge creation.  Although I have had good experiences with physicians, it was shocking for me to hear from other women how little some physicians knew (or were willing to help) when it came to women’s health. Of course, the physician’s personal biases affected their ability to deliver quality healthcare to their female patients, but I also believe that these instances reflect the lack of research and knowledge about women’s health (in spite of us making up half of the population). With how complex and dynamic the nature of healthcare is, I think it is irrational to believe that one model (aka the Western model) is sufficient to address the needs of our diverse population, and there are multiple studies that support this.

Some of the articles I have read in the past are:

  • Hafeez, H., Zeshan, M., Tahir, M.A., Jahan, N., & Naveed, S. (2017). Health Care Disparities Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: A Literature Review. Cureus. 9(4): e1184. doi: 10.7759/cureus.1184
  • Phillips-Beck, W., Eni, R., Lavoie, J., Kinew, K.A., Achan, G., & Katz, A. (2020). Confronting Racism within the Canadian Healthcare System: Systemic Exclusion of First Nations from Quality and Consistent Care. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 17(22). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228343

I enjoyed reading this article because it reinforced the need to rethink how we produce and value knowledge, which is something that I am passionate about. It is especially relevant to me as a future health informatician because the collection of diverse health data is an important aspect to my career.

Reference(s):

Heller, R. F. & Leeder, S.R. (2025). Distributing Knowledge Creation to Include Underrepresented Populations. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning. 26(2): 252-267. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v26i2.8074