IIT Institute of Design students had an impressive showing at the 2015 Core77 Design Awards. In keeping with ID’s research focus on healthcare, three of the four projects relate to medical communities, patient centric services, and wellness.

Congratulations to all the students and faculty Kim Erwin, Tom MacTavish, April Starr, and Jeremy Alexis.

Service Design Winner and Strategy and Research Runner Up
“Bridging the Communication Gap: A new touchpoint for pediatric asthma education in Emergency Departments”
Paula Falco, Tara Flippin, Sarah Norell, Jaime Rivera led by Kim Erwin and Tom MacTavish with Dr. Jerry Krishnan and 13 participating Chicago institutions including: the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, Sinai Health System, Rush University Medical Center, Lurie Children’s Hospital, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Chicago Department of Public Health, Respiratory Health Association, Chicago Asthma Consortium, NorthShore University Health System, and the Illinois Institute of Technology.

A new discharge tool that addresses the communication of complex discharge instructions to pediatric asthma patients and their families in the emergency room following an asthma attack. It re-frames the discharge experience as an active collaboration for more effective self-management beyond the ER. The team also worked to prove the value of design methods to the medical community. The work has set the strategic direction for new collaboration across diverse community stakeholders confronting disproportionate high incidence and associated socioeconomic factors of asthma in Chicago.

2015 Core77 Design Awards jury feedback:

• “It’s a very well thought through look at the entire chain of people who affect pediatric asthma.”
• “The experience and the solution coming out of it can really inspire many other similar experiences…It was very gratifying to see such a high quality of work.”
• “This was very well thought through and it was great to see a real world application of a student project.”
• “There was a very beautiful collaboration between the medical staff and the service design student body to co-create solutions together.”
• “The proposal elegantly describes the balance that can be brought to a more scientific and evidence based approach to the approach that the students took.”

Service Design Runner Up
“Notice”
Betina de Gorordo Bolado, Karolina Kohler, Amanda Rosenberg, Ariana Shadlyn led by April Starr

A two-pronged service to combat STIs that includes an online risk assessment and in-home STI testing kit, delivered by mail.

Jury feedback:

• “This is a really great example of thinking through a very compelling solution to a sensitive topic.”

Strategy and Research Runner Up
“Wayfinding for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC)”
Anushree Jain with Natalie Scoles, Andrea Zuniga, John Lee, Nabila Nowrin, and JM Downey led by Jeremy Alexis

A patient-centric wayfinding system for MSKCC that will adapt to new built and diverse environments and will soon be prototyped at MSKCC’s main building.

Jury feedback:

• “It wasn’t just the patient’s perspective that was taken…there was a very thorough end to end process applied to look at the different prototypes and different ideas for how you would support all the different stakeholders to the challenge of moving through.”
• “The prototyping iterations and the physical prototyping was very impressive. It was an enormous amount of work to happen in 13 weeks. The caliber and quality of the dioramas that were produced were really great to see.”

Service Design Notable
“White Rabbit”
Soffee Yang, Natalie Scoles, Jonathan Liu, Fernando Jose de Buen Lopez, Lili Lin led by April Starr

White Rabbit is an experiential event service that allows users to spontaneously book a mystery outing with friends.

Jury feedback:

• “It solves the pain point of trying to coordinate activities with friends, including transportation and booking.”“We liked this entry because it utilizes many design tools to come up with a fairly well thought out service that has the potential to grow beyond the starting location.”

Find out more about the work here.