

Designing for Health
Craig Joseph MD, FAAP, FAMIA
Designing for Health is a podcast for healthcare leaders and builders who want practical, real-world ways to improve care through better design. Each episode explores how teams can design safer workflows, smarter digital experiences, and more human-centered services across clinical operations, patient experience, data, and health IT. Expect candid conversations with clinicians, operators, technologists, and designers, plus clear takeaways you can use to reduce friction, strengthen adoption, and deliver measurable impact.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 11, 2023 • 50min
Designing for Health: Manish Patel, MD | CEO, Jiva.ai | AI, healthcare, and communicating complex ideas to a wide audience
CEO of Jiva.ai Dr. Manish Patel sits down with Nordic Head of Thought Leadership Dr. Jerome Pagani and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Craig Joseph to talk about AI, the founding of Jiva.ai, and how AI can and will revolutionize the healthcare industry. They also discuss communicating complex ideas to the average user, making AI accessible and trustworthy to clinicians and other health professionals, and how AI can bridge the gaps in life sciences.Show Notes:[00:00] Intros[01:34] Dr. Patel’s background[04:19] Starting Jiva.ai[06:23] Representing technical things to “normal” people[10:30] Working with designers as a go between[12:50] Reconciling the goals of the manager, the developer, the designer, and the user[17:45] Canva vs. Photoshop[20:44] Designing for different levels of the same system[23:19] How AI models will be developed in the future[26:07] Where healthcare is heading in respects to AI[30:36] How we will interact with AI in the future[33:00] Using AI to put tools in people’s hands[39:04] Over-alerting and alert fatigue in the NICU[43:56] Things so well designed, they bring Dr. Patel joyFor a full transcript, click here.

Jun 27, 2023 • 14min
Making Rounds: Optimizing implementations for a stronger business
Nordic’s Head of Thought Leadership Dr. Jerome Pagani sits down with two of Nordic’s Practice Leaders, Abby Polich from Implementation and Wally Ward from Performance Improvement. They discuss a holistic approach to a successful business-driven implementation, as well as why user-centered design, long-term change management, and ongoing trainings are critical for continuously optimized business-driven implementations.Show Notes:[00:00] Intros[01:23] EHR implementations yesterday and today[03:13] Considerations when upgrading or replacing EHRs[04:33] How EHR implementations can lead to clinical, operational, and financial improvements[07:43] Factors to consider when undergoing a business-driven implementation[08:48] Marks of a successful business-driven implementation[10:23] The business-driven factors behind today's implementations[12:17] Consolidation in the healthcare industry to stay competitiveFor a full transcript, click here.

Jun 20, 2023 • 47min
Designing for Health: Denise Worrell, MS | VP of Consumerism, Memorial Hermann Health System | How designing for experiences improves healthcare
Nordic Chief Medical Officer Dr. Craig Joseph and Head of Thought Leadership Dr. Jerome Pagani chat with Denise Worrell, vice president of consumerism at Memorial Hermann Health System. Denise shares her background in marketing and human-centered design, what it means to have a master’s in “foresight,” and how she ended up at Memorial Hermann. She also discusses how designing for experiences can drastically improve healthcare, the difference between wayfinding and way-knowing, and how new developments like generative AI will change how healthcare is delivered.Show Notes:[00:00] Intros[01:03] Denise’s background in human-centered design and innovation[08:53] Finding the “better” problem to solve[12:33] The difference between predicting the future and studying foresight[15:12] Designing for multiple possible future states[17:54] Denise’s recent work at Memorial Hermann[27:06] Designing innovations for banal features, such as parking[32:40] Wayfinding vs. way-knowing[33:50] Working with the Disney Institute[36:13] How AI will change how healthcare is delivered[40:41] Things so well designed, they bring Denise joyFor a full transcript, click here.

Jun 13, 2023 • 27min
Making Rounds: Turning data into insights with managed services
Nordic’s Head of Thought Leadership Dr. Jerome Pagani chats with President of Managed Services Paul Slaughter and Digital Health Practice Leader Kevin Erdal. They discuss the history of managed services, what it looks like in healthcare today, and how it’s evolving. They also discuss tools providers are using to turn data into insights, how a strategic centers approach differs from other historic approaches, and typical advantages and goals providers should look for.Show Notes:[00:00] Intros[01:38] What managed services is from a healthcare perspective[02:15] Why a healthcare provider would want to bring in outside expertise[02:54] The history of managed services and where it’s headed[06:33] How healthcare can learn from other industries’ use of managed services[08:10] Advantages of managed services[10:37] How the EHR differentiates managed services in healthcare[12:00] Platforms to consider to help make managed services a success[13:22] How managed services has used data in the past [14:47] Tools available to turn data into insights[16:30] What the future looks like with what an enterprise can do with data, automation, and AI[22:55] A centers approach to managed servicesFor a full transcript, click here.

Jun 6, 2023 • 29min
Designing for Health: Allison McCoy, PhD | Asst Professor, Vanderbilt University | Clickbusting and creating customized physician workflows
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Dr. Allison McCoy sits down with Nordic Head of Thought Leadership Dr. Jerome Pagani and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Craig Joseph and discusses her research and work as the director of the Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Core. They also talk about creating customized workflows for physicians, the value of real-world observations, and what it means to be a “clickbuster.”Show Notes[00:00] Intros[01:19] Dr. Allison McCoy’s background[03:26] The Clickbusters initiative[08:24] Gamifying clinical decision support[10:27] Customizing the EHR[11:15] Gauging the usability of workflow designs without being an expert[12:33] Directing the Clinical Informatics Core[14:09] Taking clinical informatics students on field trips[15:59] Translating research into patient and clinician outcomes[17:28] Utilizing physician feedbackFor a full transcript, click here.

May 23, 2023 • 43min
Designing for Health: John Whalen, PhD | Founder of Brilliant Experience | Cognitive science and designing with the brain in mind
Dr. John Whalen, founder of Brilliant Experience and author of Design for How People Think, joins Nordic Chief Medical Officer Dr. Craig Joseph and Head of Thought Leadership Dr. Jerome Pagani. Dr. Whalen shares about his background in cognitive science and working on projects such as healthcare.gov, and how designing with the brain in mind and using “radical common sense” can create a better healthcare system for patients and clinicians alike.Show notes:[00:00] Intros[02:27] Dr. John Whalen’s background[06:23] Working on healthcare.gov[08:23] How to decide whether or not to proceed with a project[09:39] Writing Design for How People Think[11:12] Why you have to observe users, not just ask them questions[13:55] The importance of language, words, and educational level in communication[20:22] Designing with “radical common sense”[21:43] Breaking down the “six minds”[28:01] Wayfinding and problem solving in design[31:30] The interplay between the six information processing systems[34:47] Designing for multiple education levels at once[38:27] Three things so well designed, they bring Dr. Whalen joyFor a full transcript, click here.

May 16, 2023 • 40min
Designing for Health: Adam Wright, PhD | Director, Vanderbilt Clinical Informatics Center | Clinical decision support and constant user feedback
Dr. Adam Wright from Vanderbilt University Medical Center talks about self-developed EHRs, user feedback, and starting fast with iterative design. He shares insights on clinical decision support, non-interruptive tools, and the importance of education in choice architecture. Dr. Wright also discusses sustaining projects and the joy of well-designed systems.

May 2, 2023 • 22min
Making Rounds: Leveraging analytics to create efficiencies
Head of Thought Leadership Dr. Jerome Pagani speaks with Digital Health Practice Leader Kevin Erdal and Performance Improvement Practice Leader Wally Ward. They discuss how enterprise data can help ease the strain on healthcare systems, how organizations can turn data into a true strategic asset, and how modernizing business intelligence systems can create the foundation for real-time insights and decision-making.Show Notes:[00:00] Intros[01:33] Factors contributing to the Big Squeeze on the clinical and operational front[02:57] How healthcare systems can use data to find improvements[05:29] Tools health systems will need to make use of data[06:51] Using real-time data to help make clinical and operational decisions[07:37] Activating the data[08:43] Specific use cases of utilizing health system data[11:42] The future of dynamic scheduling experiences[15:50] Pricing transparency in healthcareFor a full transcript, click here.

Apr 18, 2023 • 40min
Designing for Health: Chris McCarthy, MBA | Founder, ILN Coaching & Consulting | “Digical” and thinking big about human-centered design
Nordic Chief Medical Officer Dr. Craig Joseph and Head of Thought Leadership Dr. Jerome Pagani continue their conversation with Chris McCarthy of ILN Coaching and Consulting. He discusses the origins of the Innovation Learning Network, plus, Chris shares his views on the disruptive nature of nudges and real-world solutions to healthcare hurdles. He also talks about the term ‘digical’ and thinking big about human-centered design. Show notes:[00:00] Intros[01:19] The pros and cons of digital design[09:32] Not forgetting the end user[15:01] Designing the Innovation Learning Network[18:25] Publishing Innovation Within Information Technology and Healthcare with Lyle Berkowitz[21:56] Taking human-centered design to the next level[28:45] Designing for more than just the individual[30:51] Applying systems thinking to healthcare[35:30] Starting ILN Coaching and Consulting[35:50] Three things so well designed, they bring Chris joyFor the full transcript, click here.

Apr 4, 2023 • 28min
Designing for Health: Archana Tedone, PhD | Asst Professor, University of Baltimore | Psychological safety, worker stress, and patient outcomes
Organizational psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Baltimore Dr. Archana Tedone sits down with Nordic Chief Medical Officer Dr. Craig Joseph and Head of Thought Leadership Dr. Jerome Pagani. She discusses her views on psychological safety and the link between worker stress and patient outcomes, the unseen emotional labor carried by healthcare workers, and how critical user buy-in is when implementing new practices. Show notes:[00:00] Intros[01:00] Dr. Archana Tedone’s background[04:15] Psychological safety in healthcare[09:13] Barriers to achieving psychological safety[13:37] How psychological safety in the workplace affects patient care[15:11] Nurses as masters of workarounds[20:58] Designing tools and workflows with humans in mind[22:53] Things outside of healthcare that are so well designed that they bring Dr. Tedone joyFor the full transcript, click here.


