How might we design a product or service that helps each person to navigate the system to meet their health needs?

This course aims to blend the best methods of “co-design,” with key insights from digital product design and foundational AI, to create novel solutions to population-health challenges, working alongside people from communities that have been historically underserved.   

Responsive to real-world challenges from a healthcare partner, students will work with patients with chronic illness (and their caregivers) to co-design solutions that reimagine the future of primary care.   

To understand these challenges, we will explore the intersections among epidemiology of chronic illness (e.g., obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, asthma, depression, and neurologic impairments), fiscal and policy constraints faced by healthcare organizations (e.g.., managed care, block grants), and social well-being (e.g,; poverty, food insecurity, literacy). Students will conduct  field research to uncover key insights from the personal stories of people affected by these challenges, including how they impact a person’s health, their worries and their hopes.  We will place a special emphasis on the practical challenge of delivering the right care, at the right place and time.  To generate potential solutions, we will apply methods from game design (e.g.;  core loops and economy balancing) and also consider the possible role of foundational AI and machine learning. Stakeholders will include clinicians (e.g., physicians, nurses, community health workers), community experts (public health, education), technologists (e.g., informaticists, AI developers) and payers (insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid). 

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Teaching Team