Global health design: clinical immersion, opportunity identification and definition, and design experiences (original) (raw)

2018, International Journal of Engineering Education

We have developed an experiential learning global health design program that emphasizes direct interactions withstakeholders and first-hand exposure to the contexts in which solutions will be implemented. Students in the program gainpractical hands-on experience identifying and defining unmet global health needs in low-resource settings and applyhuman-centered and co-creative design approaches. Device designs that incorporate rigorously collected and analyzedfirst-hand data from diverse users and stakeholders rather than anecdotal or poorly represented information are moreeffective at meeting true needs. To date, more than 100 undergraduate student participants have identified hundreds ofneeds in collaboration with sub-Saharan and Asian healthcare providers. Approximately 400 students from the U.S.,Ghana, Ethiopia, and Uganda have contributed to the generation of technology concept solutions to address these needs.Program outcomes include approximately 100 student design projects co...