WEll-Being Design

When a loved one falls ill and comes to the hospital, the way in which they encounter medicine can be visceral and profound. How one experiences health goes beyond just the sight, smell, and hearing of medicine. There are also the interweavings of the context, the history, and the feeling. These are the intricate and complex layers of health and well-being that influence a patient’s experience at the hospital. People can experience the same medical space with vastly diverse emotions.  As a medical provider, I aim for happiness and satisfaction. However, when my patients may be facing their biggest fear of pain, disease and death, what I hope and strive for, is that my daily work adds to the sum total of meaningfulness in life.

Part of helping my patients is having a framework to help me understand my patients better.  The concept of Well-Being Design comes from interior design, but I think is adeptly applicable to medicine, if not more so. Like interior design, you are confined by boundaries and limits, whether there are actual walls or more invisible realities. Yet, within that space, I strive to incorporate and construct empathy, beauty, and holistic well-being.  Well-Being Design embodies a human-centered philosophy by making an ordinary experience meaningful, extraordinary and impactful for every person that encounters healthcare.

In this permutable framework,  there is a deeply embedded layer, "Landscape," which includes how history, policy, socioeconomics and society impact health decision-making. Stacked next on top is "Viability," which includes issues of resources, insurance, finances and practicality.  The "Infrastructure" layer encompasses the tangible interactions with hospitals/clinics, providers, and technologies. The top and most important layer is that of “Emotions,” which infuses personal value or subconscious beliefs. Embracing and connecting with these all these different layers is crucial when designing for the well-being. By re-framing problems with Well-Being Design, we can better understand our patients and truly address their unmet healthcare needs.   

I believe the future of healthcare is to create an environment that is adaptive, responsive, and anticipatory to what people need to succeed in taking care of their health. By interrogating, observing, (re)-iterating, and un-constraining that landscape, we can change its boundaries and tilt our angle of perspective just enough to find that novel idea that will have real impact on our patients.  Through collaboration with different industries and diverse teams, I believe we can discover innovative solutions to medicine better. I'm constantly soul-searching and asking myself the Why's and How's— keeping open to the possibilities.  Life is about being in a constant state of learning, play and being creative. My hands and mind are restless. What can I do or make next?