By prioritizing the human experience of both the patient and the healthcare professional, emphasizing inclusive design, human factors, and human-environment interactions, the design community is positioned to positively impact the health and wellness domain.
Design thinking can help us understand adaptation to innovation and appropriation of new technology, provide design strategies and methodologies for risk reduction and cognitive support, and aid in developing techniques for design practitioners to better engage with stakeholders in clinical design contexts.
At Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab), a number of people have chosen to explore current and future challenges in healthcare from a design and innovation perspective. Early meetings of this group focused on collaboration around the theme of 'healthcare journeys'. The group includes healthcare professionals, faculty and graduate students from OCAD University's Strategic Foresight & Innovation program, as well as partner healthcare organizations.
Group News & Events
Oksana Kachur, a Master of Design candidate in OCAD U's Strategic Foresight and Innovation program, presented her project "Challenging Contexts: Hearing the Voice of Residents and Families in Hospice Care Design Research" at the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI) conference, CHI 2012, held May 5 to 10 in Austin, Texas.
Current projects
This project focuses on diversity -- of technology use, displays, information needs, and human capabilities. The aim is to design and test a a SafeFont that is flexible enough to be used across healthcare settings and to be used by anyone. For more information please visit the SafeFont project page or contact Kate Sellen.
Social Connection for Health
More recently, innovation in healthcare has refocused on the patient and their journey. This new way of thinking is particularly useful for addressing innovation in longterm care contexts. The aim of this project is to explore how social connection and patient/resident centred thinking can enhance communication with healthcare workersand family/caregivers to improve safety and quality of care. For more information please contact Kate Sellen.
Sensory Needs at the End of Life
Understanding sensory needs in palliative care. This project is a first step in a series of efforts to uncover design futures for interactive artifacts and experiences that would help hospice residents and their families through difficult transition points at the end of life. The project is a collaboration between SFI student Oksana Kachur, OCAD U's Strategic Innovation and Ambient Experience labs, and Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital's Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care Research Division. The hospital is in turn partnered with Toronto's Kensington Health Centre and the Kensington Hospice. For more information please contact Kate Sellen.
Selected publications
Following are publications developed by group members, selected for relevance to group interests and aims.
