Masters in Design Science Global Health Design Track

Within the Design Science Master’s Program, students may complete a specialized Global Health Design track of study sponsored by GHDI. Pulling from diverse course offerings across the University the Global Health Design track allows students to develop a holistic understanding of best practices in global health design as well as a growing knowledge of strategies and trends in the field. Students focus on refining skills essential to the designing technologies that improves human health in low-resource settings.

For more information check out the Design Science Masters website

 

Sienko Research Group

LIGHT focuses on the co-creative design of cost-effective technology solutions to healthcare challenges in low- and middle-income countries and in doing so, we investigate the design processes that produce effective and usable devices. We use design ethnography to develop a deep understanding of contexts and stakeholders to inform design decisions.

For more information, visit the LIGHT website.

Prospective graduate students should apply to the Department of Mechanical Engineering or Department of Biomedical Engineering PhD program and indicate in their application their interest in working with Professor Sienko.

Occasionally, LIGHT is able to support undergraduate research assistants through SURE, SROP, UROP, and other research programs.

Compendium of Global Health Medical Devices

The design, development, and implementation of health-related technologies for resource limited settings require a detailed consideration of the end user and target community that goes beyond the traditional engineering design needs assessment. In a broader sense, economic, social, and cultural constraints must be considered for successful implementation of technologies. Such constraints are often difficult or impossible to ascertain a priori, necessitating significant fieldwork; there is currently no database where prospective designers for global health can review how others have fared with similar and diverse challenges. We have developed a compendium of medical devices through research of best practices in medical devices designed for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of the World Health Organization top ten causes of death in low-income countries in addition to Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 (maternal and infant/child mortality). The online, free, and wiki-based compendium of global health medical device allows users to search for any medical device that is designed for or used in a developing setting based on a given health challenge (ex. HIV, Malaria, etc.), or device classification (ex. diagnostic, prevention, treatment), or device stage (concept, clinical trial, market), or region. The wiki-based nature of the compendium allows users to add new device cases to the existing database.

Access the compendium here.

Design for Global Health Academic Program

The Design for Global Health Academic Program provides students with an opportunity to address global health challenges through design ethnography at a field site abroad and design coursework at the University of Michigan.