Professor José Colucci, director of Research and Development at the Design Institute for Health (DIH) and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, gave a lecture at Técnico, this Monday, 27th January, and explained how design can help transform health care systems. The lecture was promoted by American Corner@IST.

The professor started his lecture by sharing his professional career and highlighting some of his projects, and then he explained why he accepted the challenge of joining the Design Institute for Health. “I realized that, at DIH, I would have the opportunity to make a positive and unique impact on society”, he said. “Our mission is to transform the way medicine works,” he added.

According to professor José Colucci, “it’s crucial to value the importance of health care systems and the population well-being. We must invest in prevention instead of prioritizing treatment”. “We must adopt a more human-centered health care system”.

“Transforming health through design” is the goal of professor José Colucci’s team. “One of the things that we cannot forget when we are developing these types of solutions in the health area is that a patient doesn’t want to use something that constantly reminds him/her that he/she has a disease”, he said. “A successful idea is a solution that benefits everyone in the chain: the patient, the doctor, the insurance company, the government and the industry”.