After working in the consumer space for many years I became inspired by the enormous opportunities for human-centered design within healthcare. For the past five years I've been working within interdisciplinary teams of providers, front line staff and patients to solve critical care delivery problems and improve the patient experience at UCSF. I've appreciated the room to introduce design methods and tools into institutional initiatives, and the access, as a non-clinician, to clinical contexts and patients. There have been many rewards, but maybe the most rewarding is seeing mindsets shift when patient voices are elevated and that perspective is given its due weight in a design conversation. 

As scientific breakthroughs push the boundaries of what’s possible in medicine, the infrastructure to manage the subsequent medical complexity beyond the walls of the hospital or clinic (and sometimes within them) isn’t keeping pace -- leaving patients and caregivers to fill in the gaps and create the workarounds to get their care needs met. There’s room to challenge system orthodoxies and shape new models of care, new services and experiences.