Arts
Today’s episode comes in the middle of a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus has spread to every country on earth, and much of the world’s population is under some form of lockdown as countries and states try and fight the virus and deal with the impact of COVID-19, the disease it causes. So obviously it’s not business as usual. Like a lot of organizations, the Group of Humans has had to refocus our communication in response to the crisis, meaning that most of what we’re publishing right now revolves around healthcare in some form.So today’s guest reflects that. I’m talking with Lisa deBettencourt, a design strategist who’s spent the last eight years working primarily with healthcare organizations and startups. She has a background in user experience design, but as you’ll hear, she’s also quite a polymath, with a solid understanding of genomics, clinical diagnostics, data privacy, and especially in the systems-level issues around healthcare, especially in the US. She’s also an adjunct professor at Northeastern University in Boston, where she teaches a course on the ways technology impacts culture, and how to shape that impact for the better.Most of today’s conversation focuses on the design challenges posed by the pandemic, both short-term and long-term; and that ranges from digital tools for managing chronic health issues, to telemedicine, to some of the likely lingering effects on the way we work and receive services. For designers and design-driven organizations, the discussion highlights some areas where we might be able to do some good, if not in the immediate struggle, then in the long aftermath, when so many human behaviors are guaranteed to change.