Visualising chronic pain.

Rita Giordano visualised pain and wrote about it.

Rita Giordano wrote about the process of developing visualisations about pain. She describes how infographics could be transformed to better reflect patients’ needs.

A quote: ‘We need to be careful about how we display the information and communicate clearly with plain language while avoiding jargon. More importantly, we need to involve patients; their input is critical in shaping the final product. As information designers, we need to not only understand how patients understand visual information, but also how they respond to it emotionally.’

The article concludes:

Never assume. Always ask for feedback. Many people are willing to help.
Engaging patients in your healthcare project will be rewarding.
Ask medical experts for their thoughts and insights into the scientific findings.

Website of the author: Rita Giordano

Website: Infogr8

TEDx talk by Karel van der Waarde

Karel’s TEDx talk is published right on time. It highlights some arguments why the European legislation about medicines information in package leaflets needs to be changed.

Enabling patients by listening to them

Karel’s TEDx talk “Enabling patients” is published right on time. It highlights some arguments why the European legislation about medicines information in package leaflets needs to be changed.

Fortunately, it is now possible to provide feedback about a proposal for revision of this legislation. The deadline is November 8.

If the proposal is not modified, we’ll continue to have these useless, expensive, unsustainable, and embarrassingly poor leaflets for a few more decades. Patients deserve better.

IIID will provide feedback about the proposed revision to the European Commission.

IIID Conversation with Gillian Harvey, 5 October 2023, 15:00 UTC

Gillian Harvey will discuss two projects designed to increase empathy and reduce stigma toward people who experience addiction.

Health communications about addiction

Gillian says “it’s important to engage communities in health system change, particularly for marginalized and equity seeking groups. I will also discuss what types of methods work well, but also what could be improved upon in using co-design”.

Gillian Harvey will discuss two projects designed to increase empathy and reduce stigma toward people who experience addiction. She used co-design methods to learn from lived experience and non-traditional knowledge forms; and she used community-based decision-making aimed at shared ownership of the solutions.

Exhibition with colourful hanging panels.

Introducing Gillian Harvey

Gillian is an Associate Professor in Design Studies, Department of Art & Design at the University of Alberta (Canada), where she teaches undergraduate students design theory, practice and research. She is Co-Director of the Design Health Research Innovation Lab (DHRIL) and a World Region Representation of the International Institute of Information Design (IIID).

Her research prioritizes information design, design for decision making and design in critical or emergency situations including technical administration of emergency overdose kits, patient safety education materials and pediatric resuscitation. She has worked with government, industry and the private sector developing materials that include projects that address systems concerns, and enhance broader healthcare processes.