Prof. Stacey Chang is the Executive Director of the Design Institute for Health, a collaboration between the Dell Medical School and the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. He joined our Kuala Lumpur 2018 meeting to present on the topic of “Digital platforms & designing healthy ecosystems”. In our podcast interview he discusses design thinking in healthcare and health professions education.
Prof. Chang initially trained in Mechanical Engineering at MIT and received an MS in the subject from Stanford University. Since then, he has held a number of positions developing innovations in a variety of areas, from consumer products to academic teaching. From 2005 until 2014 he was the Managing Director for Healthcare at IDEO, an international design and consulting firm originating in Palo Alto, California. There he applied design thinking to the complex and ever-changing challenges facing research institutions, hospitals, pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, and governments.
Pro. Chang’s work at the Design Institute for Health involves the Institute’s efforts to apply “design approaches to solving systemic healthcare challenges as an integrated part of an operating health system and a medical education and training program”. Seeking human-cantered solutions in clinical and community health environments, the Design Institute uses “creative problem-solving methods to deeply understand the needs of patients and providers, generate fresh systemic approaches, and rapidly prototype and realize solutions”. All aspects of the health ecosystem are open to consideration, ranging from the built environment to care experiences to the system itself.