Abstract
Biomedical engineering, engineering, and design in health programs around the world have involved human-centered design as part of their undergraduate curriculum. The disparities evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid developments of biotech startups have highlighted the importance of preparing professionals in the health areas for undertaking rigorous, empathetic, and ethical research. In addition to working with human-driven information, students in the health areas are challenged to deal with technical developments that involve legal and ethical concerns deeply rooted in sociopolitical issues and human rights. Concerned with how to achieve a better understanding of behavior in designing for healthcare, this article describes the rationale behind teaching qualitative research in healthcare for biomedical engineering and engineering design education. Through portraying different healthcare designs resulting from an engineering design course, it describes the instruction of qualitative-driven concepts taught to biomedical engineering, design, and premed undergraduate students. Using a design-based research approach, we look to increase the chances of adoption of the presented qualitative research concepts in educational design in health programs. We deliver five tested research tools that better prepare students to carry out more rigorous, respectful, and aware qualitative research in health areas for the development of novel solutions.
Highlights
We used a design-based research (DBR) approach to showcase in a descriptive way the results of working with qualitative research tools informed by anthropological theory in design health projects with undergraduate students
The following section presents four designs for healthcare projects worked by engineers and biomedical engineers that had undergone the anthro-design training or qualitative research concepts grounded in anthropological theory
When these students were prompted with a challenge or an open-ended question by a clinical mentor, clinical sponsor, or someone in the health area, they had to undergo a qualitative research process to understand the issue and the specific context
Summary
The Social Turn in Design Education for Healthcare. A new paradigm for health education is on the rise. Through core curricular courses such as design teams courses [1], biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduates are asked to resolve issues prompted by medical professionals [1,2,3]. Programs that mix design and healthcare are becoming more and more prolific in the United States Through the years the health topics presented have become increasingly social in nature, requiring students to be more aware of human involvement in the adoption of new technologies
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