Integrating Design Thinking into Clinical Research
Designers

John Sylvester

Faculty Advisor

Sarah Rottenberg

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) embarked on a multiphase Patient Safety Learning Lab (PSLL) project, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to improve the total lifecycle of care in the hospital and at home for patients with monitoring systems such as premature infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia. The PSLL team brought in a group of faculty and students from Penn’s Integrated Product Design program to lead the Design phase of the project. The Design phase began right as COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, and the IPD team successfully pivoted to a fully digital workflow to guide the PSLL team through analysis, problem framing, and ideation. Using design tools like experience maps, virtual ideation sessions, storyboards, and prototype recommendations, the IPD team successfully integrated design into clinical research to identify novel ways of approaching and solving problems in clinical care.