This week I learned about human-centered design and its application to medical technology. Human-centered design is basically an approach to design that focuses on understanding needs and finding solutions for those needs. Those solutions also need to take into account the costs involved and the feasibility of implementing the solution given the costs. The human-centered design was originally created for NGOs that work in less privileged regions. The human-centered design is also known as hear, create, deliver which refers to observing needs and desires, creating prototypes or solutions, and finally delivering the solutions to the community. In the lecture we also learned about three new innovations that were a result of the human-centered design. The first innovation was the Phillips HeartStart Home Defibrillator which allows businesses and people to keep a life saving device nearby. The blood donor system was also an interesting concept for getting more people to come out to donate blood. I’ve never donated blood before, and the new system might get more people like me to donate blood.

Our assignment for this week was to watch four videos on four different clinics/hospitals and to come up with a list of needs using the human-centered design. I had an easy time coming up with a list of needs for the clinic in Sierra Leone and the ER room in Uganda, but struggled with coming up with needs for the Frances Nelson Clinic and especially for Carle Hospital.