A marriage in practice: The role of design research in the world of medical science

Abstract

For decades, design and medical research have been courting with varying levels of success. Much has been written about the potential of combining design methodologies and medical research in transdisciplinary collaborations (Chauhan et al., 2021; Mishra et al., 2021). The translation of this collaboration from promise to practice can be difficult. Partnerships between design and medical research face dif- ferences regarding how knowledge is produced, exchanged, funded, supported, and deemed successful (Groeneveld et al., 2018). Like any relationship, the two must ne- gotiate hierarchical norms, inharmonious timeframes, and distinctive values. This con- versation led to a robust exchange with designers and researchers who have been at- tempting to forge this marriage between design and healthcare practices. Our trans- disciplinary team's experience blending design and medical research to address the American opioid crisis served as a springboard to a more general exchange, surfacing better practices for deeper collaboration between scientists and designers.