Professional Development and Human-Centered Design Course
The Institute for Population Health, College of Professional and Continuing Education and Center for Faculty Excellence will offer faculty a course on human-centered design (HCD), an approach to problem-solving that brings diverse perspectives together to identify, brainstorm and iteratively develop solutions to meet a population’s needs.
This faculty development course will give participants the skills and knowledge to apply a HCD approach in their work at Creighton—ranging from research, teaching, community engagement or program development—to develop human-centered solutions that ultimately solve problems or challenges for all involved.
- Informational Webinar (passcode: 6SkYUYB&)
- Applications to participate in the course close on Friday, Oct. 4.
The course will be offered through Blueline later this fall. It will include coaching from the instructors Hans VanDerSchaaf, PhD, and Anthony Cheng, MD, of Oregon Health Sciences University. VanDerSchaaf is digital health strategist and teaches design innovation, and Cheng is medical director and family physician in the Office of Digital Health.
More on human-centered design
According to IPH Executive Director Scott Shipman, MD, MPH, human-centered design, sometimes called “design thinking,” is an inclusive approach to developing solutions that thoughtfully includes inputs from all stakeholder perspectives. It ensures a common understanding of the problem to be solved and incorporates key insights into planning the solution, which are critical to more successful and sustainable interventions. It can work in various settings, including business, education, healthcare and community.
HCD approaches research and problem-solving with empathy, collaboratively and in context, leading to useful solutions, interventions or products that are much more likely to be sustainable, acceptable solutions to meaningful problems.
“HCD is an important skill set for the work of population health because the problems that underly disparities in health have multifactorial and multisector origins,” Shipman says. “Solutions that work, and that stick, fundamentally require stakeholder engagement. HCD provides a compelling context for getting the right people involved, valuing and incorporating their inputs, and working together on implementing solutions. I see HCD as an integral component of implementation science, which provides the tools to accelerate getting evidence into everyday practice.”
Faculty from across the University’s schools and colleges may apply to take the course. The application requires faculty to share an idea for how they would use HCD in their work in the classroom, community or other context. Read more about HCD.
When faculty trained in HCD incorporate the method into their work, students can gain the same beneficial skills with real-world application, improving their ability to generate effective ideas and execute those ideas to change the world.
Watch this video in Bridge to learn about human-centered design.