Stanford Medicine X Austin Pop-Up

Written for a Medicine X newsletter (except for the added list at the end)

What experiments would you conduct to explore how to address problems experienced with healthcare today? This was the question posed to attendees of the Medicine X pop-up event in Austin the evening of November 9. Attendees had just been presented with 6 key insights regarding such problems — insights derived from research done in the Austin area, and attendees actively engaged in the brainstorming using post-its as part of a process used by designers applying design thinking to solve human-centered problems.

The research insights had been presented to the attendees by Stacey Chang, Executive Director of the new Design Institute for Health, a collaboration between the newly-formed Dell Medical School and the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Stacey and the Institute are charged with applying creative design methodologies to the development of a model of a new value-based healthcare system for the Austin area. Stacey previously served as the Managing Director of the Healthcare practice at IDEO, a very successful global design and innovation firm.

Earlier in the program, Stacey outlined the mission of the Institute and its priorities, and expertly responded to the many challenging questions of the attendees, all people to be impacted by the product of the Institute’s work. The research insights he shared are insights which should be used as guides to the work of healthcare designers almost everywhere, though particularly in the United States.

The organizer for the pop-up was Richard Anderson, a past multi-year Medicine X ePatient Scholar and a teacher of human-centered design process at General Assembly, a co-sponsor of the event. He was joined on stage by Brett Alder and Breck Gamel, two other past Medicine X ePatient scholars, to introduce the program and to describe the Medicine X mission and experience.

The program was a success, leaving attendees feeling engaged in a process very important to the future of healthcare.

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photos by Alicia Dietrich & Chris Hammond

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FYI: the 6 research insights referenced in the newsletter piece above:

• The Imbalance of Hope and Fear Prevents People From Engaging
• Generalizations Keep My Baggage Stowed When It Should Be Unpacked
• Navigating Health is Like Finding Your Way Through a Foreign Land Using a Map with No Legend
• Diagnosis Today is a Period When It Should Be a Question Mark
• Care Plans Feel Formulaic When They Demand Improvisation
• Patient Compliance is a False Choice When People Aren’t Ready to Act