Health/Design was a one-day event that took place at Rice University in Houston, Texas on Friday, April 27, 2018 and brought together leading design thinkers in healthcare to explore the value of human-centered creative approaches in solving complex problems in healthcare.

Nationally acclaimed thought leaders including Bon Ku (Jefferson University), Joyce Lee (University of Michigan), Matt Trowbridge (University of Virginia), Dennis Boyle (IDEO), Upali Nanda (HKS), Stacey Chang (Design Institute for Health, Dell Medical School), Tammy Cupit & Rachel Murphy (UTMB MakerHealth Space), and others discussed how and why they work to bring design practices to healthcare settings.

The proceedings will form the basis for a forthcoming white paper addressing core issues in human-centered design for health, such as: What are the core reasons for using human-centered design in healthcare today? What is the evidence base for using human-centered design in healthcare? What works, and how do we know it works? How can human-centered design be used in clinical settings? How can human-centered design be used in medical and other health education settings? What is the role of patients in human-centered design in healthcare? What other voices need to be part of the design process? What do we still need to learn about using human-centered design in healthcare? What evidence is still needed to prove that human-centered design is effective or valuable in healthcare settings?

As stakeholders working from inside of their institutions to bring the “outside” practice of design thinking into the clinic, our presenters shared their views on why it is necessary to bring creative problem solving into medicine, and what they have seen come out of these experiments that is unique, valuable, and currently absent from medical practice. They addressed questions including: What if design thinking were considered a required clinical competency? What new kinds of doctors might emerge? How might those doctors engage differently with their patients? How might those doctors – and patients – engage differently with the emerging challenges of our healthcare system?

This day-long program organized by the Medical Futures Lab included a series of presentations along with a hands-on breakout session where groups of participants engaged in guided discussion with our presenters to address current questions in health/design.

Contact: @KirstenOstherr