General gaps in healthcare come in many flavors: malfunctioning of a tool or process, the absence of a tool or process, lack of a shared mental model during clinical procedures, communication issues, system inefficiencies, awkward workflows, transportation, physical space challenges, healthcare disparities, security issues, etc. Designers working in the healthcare…

Sasha had given birth to preterm twins at 30 weeks. She was instructed to pump and hand-express her colostrum into a bottle or medicine cup. It was awkward to use the breast pump because the colostrum got stuck in the valve of the pump, and nurses had to scrape it…

Product Development & Commercialization As Endurance Sport I took up running a little over a year ago. I could run at best two miles, and at the end of my run I would feel exhausted. Even worse, I just wanted it to be over. Not only was I in cardiovascular…

Today when I was getting my haircut my hairdresser “Kelly” asked me why I looked so down. I told her about some work I am doing with my therapist to understand addictive behavior. My response led her to confess her battle with alcoholism. You would never know. She is young…

I’m co-teaching a course this summer at Stanford’s d. School with Dr. Henry Lee, Hamsika Chandrasekar and Seamus Harte called “Gaining Patient Perspectives On Disease.” We have called the class “The Empathy Project” on my website. Dr. Lee was awarded a grant by the Stanford Medical School to pursue an…

A (extraordinary) Day In My Life I am inspired to write about an extraordinary day I experienced at a children’s hospital in California. A little background first: for the past four years I have been working diligently on a lactation support product I call “Primo-Lacto®: A Closed System For Colostrum…

A teaching team that combines a designer and a clinician is a must for classes in healthcare design and was, as a result, essential for creating a class like Designing For Safety in Labor & Delivery. Clinicians are on the front lines everyday. They experience the problems first-hand and…