Design for Global Health Academic Program

Please read the following information carefully to best understand program requirements.

Spring/Summer 2027: Clinical Immersion and Design Ethnography Experience (Field Site)

• 4-8 week experience at a clinical field site in Ghana between May and August 2027. The specific timing will be confirmed pending clinical field site and partner availability. 
• During the clinical immersion experience, participants will:
  • Develop and apply design ethnography skills
  • Observe and interview health care professionals
  • Establish intercultural and interdisciplinary communication skills
  • Develop clinical literacy on a particular health care topic
  • Gain an understanding of the local and broader contexts of design
  • Define a problem and generate and/or refine user requirements and engineering specifications
  • Explore early-stage concept solutions
• The scope of the front-end design work completed at the field site will vary by location and clinical theme, but all participants will utilize various design ethnography techniques such as formulating need statements, conducting observations and interviews, developing user requirements and engineering specifications, and performing a context assessment. General descriptions of the three most common types of projects are provided below: 
  • Needs Finding: Students perform design ethnography studies including observations, interviews, and focus groups in order to identify and define unmet clinical needs. Once identified, needs are prioritized and one or more needs are studied in depth through focused observations and interviews, benchmarking, literature review, and early-stage prototyping with the goal of defining user requirements and engineering specifications and developing preliminary concept solutions. Typically, this work is performed at a new or relatively new field site and is highly exploratory in nature. 
  • Deep Dive: Students begin their clinical immersion experience by conducting focused observations and interviews, or “deep dives”, in order to further define a select number of previously identified high priority clinical needs. Students utilize these direct interactions with stakeholders along with benchmarking, literature review, early-stage prototyping, and evaluation of relevant prior student concepts to refine and/or build upon existing user requirements and engineering specifications and develop new concept solutions. This type of project work is typically performed at an established field site that has supported previous GHDI student teams.
  • Problem-Solution Co-Evolution: Students pursue one high priority clinical need that has been defined by previous student teams through clinical immersion and design coursework. During the clinical immersion experience, students simultaneously develop and refine both the definition of the clinical need and concept solutions informed by focused interviews and observations, while continuously iterating their analysis, synthesis, and evaluation processes between the two notional design ‘spaces’ – problem space and solution space (Dorst and Cross, 2001). Students also explore local manufacturing capacity and processes, and other relevant implementation factors in order to inform the development of clinically-viable solutions. 
  • Note: in 2027, Deep Dive and Problem-Solution Co-Evolution project types are the most likely offerings, with Needs Finding project types less likely. Project types will be communicated with students as coordination is confirmed with clinical partners in Winter 2027.  
• The clinical immersion component of this program is remotely mentored by GHDI faculty and staff so student teams MUST exercise independence in travel.
• Students can earn up to three credit hours of ENGR 355/455 for the deliverables from the clinical immersion and design ethnography experience over the summer. This credit is optional and may be distributed across future semesters.
• Students may work in teams comprised of undergraduate students from local universities near the field site (e.g., the University of Ghana in Accra, Ghana or Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana)
• Students will work in teams in clinical settings, and are expected to treat all those they interact with, including their fellow team members, the clinical partners, and others respectfully and professionally.

Fall 2027: Design Coursework (Ann Arbor)

• Students will enroll in a follow-on capstone engineering design course to develop and test concept solutions and implementation considerations using the knowledge gained from the clinical immersion experience.
  • Mechanical Engineering students will be expected to enroll in MECHENG 450 Capstone Design and Manufacturing III (4 credits)
  • Biomedical Engineering students will be expected to enroll in ENGR 450 (4 credit). ENGR 450  has the same curricular expectations and requirements as MECHENG 450, and co-meets with MECHENG 450. Students enrolled in ENGR 450 will be on a capstone team with mechanical engineering students. Biomedical engineering students may substitute ENGR 450 for their senior biomedical design course with approval from their academic advisor. 
  • MECHENG 450 / ENGR 450 can be taken as an engineering technical elective.
  • MECHENG 450 / ENGR 450 lecture, discussion, and recitation sections are typically held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12-4 pm on North Campus. 
• Students may optionally enroll in additional design coursework to continue the project during the following Winter (2028) term.

Selected students will be placed into cohorts. Each cohort will spend their clinical immersion and design ethnography experience at a specific field site with a designated clinical theme. Potential summer 2027 field sites and clinical themes include:

Obstetrics and Gynecology (Deep Dive, or Problem-Solution Co-Evolution)

• Korle Bu Teaching Hospital – Accra, Ghana
• Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital – Kumasi, Ghana

Emergency Medicine (Needs Finding, Deep Dive, or Problem-Solution Co-Evolution)

• Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital – Kumasi, Ghana

The credit earned from this experience can count towards the Multidisciplinary Design Minor with Global Health Design Specialization. Coursework may also count toward the Specialized Study Programs in Global Health Design. However, participating students are not required to enroll in these academic programs.