Ellen Lupton, Dr. Bon Ku|Books
February 28, 2022
Health Design Thinking
Editor’s Note: The following text and images are an excerpt from, Health Design Thinking, 2nd Edition by Bon Ku, MD and Ellen Lupton, and reprinted with permission of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Institution and MIT Press. We are hosting Bon Ku and Ellen Lupton for a lunchtime discussion on Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Tickets here.
Health design thinking is an approach to generating creative ideas and solutions that enhance human well-being. Health design thinking is an open mindset rather than a rigid methodology. Anyone can participate in this process. Listening, observing, storytelling, prototyping, and role-play are tools for building empathy and thinking creatively.
The first edition of Health Design Thinking conveys ideas and methods that have been applied to products, environments, and services. This new edition builds on those fundamentals in light of the changes in design and health care prompted by COVID-19. When the pandemic hit, clinics, schools, and design offices were forced to immediately provide services online. Policy failures, misinformation, and political manipulations exploited frontline workers. Marginalized communities demanded equitable care. Catastrophic gaps in the global supply chain demanded the design and redesign of personal protective equipment (PPE), mobile testing, remote care, and safe, inclusive ways to use public and private space.
Health Design Thinking, Second Edition is a field guide for rapid-response design. Our underlying methodology emerged from the Health Design Lab at Thomas Jefferson University, co-founded by Bon Ku. The Lab began as an experiment. Could medical students with no engineering background create prototypes for new devices and services? During the pandemic, the Lab switched gears to confront such challenges as manufacturing nasopharyngeal swabs for detecting SARS-CoV-2 and deploying mobile testing and vaccination sites in underserved neighborhoods.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum joined forces with the Health Design Lab to create and update this essential guide for doctors, nurses, educators, students, patients, advocates, architects,and designers. Design thinking will continue to grow, becoming a crucial tool as hospitals, governments, caregivers, and communities prepare for the future.
Observed
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Observed
By Ellen Lupton & Dr. Bon Ku
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