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Did you know that women make up only 34% of initial clinical trial participants and experience twice as many negative drug reactions as men? Today’s guests Carlotta Hillger and Hanna Kalesse are tackling this critical gap through their digital platform, TrialMe. Inspired by their own experiences with medication side effects, Carlotta and Hanna created TrialMe to connect women to clinical trials in a way that fits their lives, not the other way around. Their approach is holistic, catering opportunities to women’s health needs and removing barriers to participation. Join us to talk to Carlotta and Hanna about the biggest obstacles to closing the health gender gap, what it takes to build a digital research platform, and their advice on how to move past just acknowledging a societal problem, and instead actually trying to solve it.
Show Notes 🖊️
Chapters 📖
00:00-01:33 Intro
01:34-06:39 TrialMe as a reaction to experiencing the gender health gap
06:40-08:33 Working with Daya Ventures
08:34-15:08 Communication tips for recruiting women to clinical trials
15:09-17:33 Designing around women’s lives
17:34-19:15 What actually is a clinical trial?
19:16-23:29 Hyper-personalized care
23:30-27:52 The unexpected response to TrialMe
27:53-32:50 Addressing the health gap across other demographics
32:51-34:56 Trials that are actively recruiting
34:57-40:18 The design philosophy behind TrialMe
40:19-45:57 From noticing a systemic problem to solving it
45:58-48:07 Outro
Today’s episode is a fun one as we’re talking all about designing for play. Our guests Sydney and Dr. Kaitlin Wiseman are the co-founders of Playhouse MD, a line of childcare essentials that answer the question: could it be possible to transform your kid’s toughest moments into playtime? From their bestselling narwhal nasal bulb to our personal favorite, the newly-released giraffe thermometer, Sydney and Dr. Kaitlin are reimagining kids’ healthcare through play. After selling out multiple times and launching in Target nationwide, their viral success points to the value of designing for the emotional side of care. Join us to talk to Sydney and Dr. Kaitlin about what inspired Playhouse MD, working together as a toy designer and family physician, and what ‘play’ means in a medical context.
Show Notes 🖊️
To learn more about PlayhouseMD and explore their full line of childcare essentials, visit:
https://playhousemd.com/
✨ Listener discount: Use code DWSYN20 for 20% off individual products (one-time use per customer).
Episode References
01:35 Dr. Kaitlin is a family physician, meaning she provides comprehensive care for patients of all ages, including children.
03:52 An otoscope is a medical tool used to examine the ear canal and eardrum.
04:59 A nasal bulb helps suction mucus from a baby’s nose to clear congestion.
05:30 In design, pain points refer to moments of user frustration or difficulty—not physical pain.
06:51 Nasal aspirating is the process of removing mucus using tools like a nasal bulb.
13:41 TPR (Thermoplastic Rubber) is a flexible, durable material commonly used in medical devices.
30:19 A spirometer measures lung capacity and airflow. Bella references its use in asthma care through Asthmatuner (Medituner).
32:10 White space refers to unmet needs or untapped opportunities in the market.
34:49 IDEO is a global design consultancy known for human-centered innovation in healthcare and beyond.
38:24 Biotoxicity testing ensures device materials are safe for patients.
BPA-free means products meet safety standards limiting Bisphenol A exposure.
40:16 Ergonomics focuses on designing products that fit human bodies comfortably and naturally.
40:56 FDA items are products regulated for safety and effectiveness by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
45:27 An MRI machine creates detailed 3D images of the body. Designer Doug Dietz helped redesign MRI experiences to reduce fear for pediatric patients.
46:47 RSV is a common respiratory illness affecting the lungs, especially in young children.
Chapters ⏱️
00:00–01:42 Intro
01:43–05:18 From toy design to reimagining kids’ healthcare
05:19–09:47 Making nasal aspirating more playful
09:48–16:41 How a toy designer and physician collaborate
16:42–29:19 Balancing playfulness with safety
29:20–33:51 The opportunity in playful medical devices
33:51–38:04 Designing the rocket syringe
38:06–44:41 Testing challenges for medical products
44:42–49:17 Reimagining the doctor’s office experience
49:18–52:29 What would your 5-year-old self think?
Welcome back to The Designer Will See You Now podcast, where we talk health, design, and advocacy. Most healthtech conversations focus on the next 'cool' product that promises to revolutionize how we approach health. But… we rarely talk about the one thing that actually determines if people will use it: and that’s how it makes them feel. Today, we're talking about the stigma that prevents people from seeking help in the first place. Were you ever teased for wearing glasses, or picked on for using an inhaler? These experiences can build lifelong hesitancy towards using these products. Today’s guest, Nick Morgan-Jones, understands this well: as a product designer with hearing loss, he is on a mission to build hearing tech - for people who don’t want to wear hearing aids. With 10 years of design experience under his belt, Nick is launching Overtone to tackle the stigma and do for hearing technology what branding did for glasses. Join us to talk about how Nick’s personal journey inspires his designs, the insidious power of stigma, and how Overtone challenges our preconceptions about the hearing loss experience.
Show Notes 🖊️
To learn more about Overtone, sign up to be the first to hear about the launch at https://www.overtone.so/
04:57 Nick cites that the average time it takes for people who find out they could benefit from hearing technology to actually getting hearing aids is 7-11 years. This statistic is corroborated by a 2019 study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which concluded an average of 8.9 years https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6363915/
06:41 The first hearing aids Nick wore consistently were Phonak Lyric, which are designed to be completely invisible https://www.phonak.com/en-us/hearing-devices/hearing-aids/lyric
13:42 We discuss the ‘curb-cut effect,’ a phenomenon where disability-friendly features, originally designed for individuals with disabilities, provide significant, unexpected benefits to the general public. The name comes from a 1972 initiative by the city of Berkeley, California to install the first ‘curb-cuts’ into sidewalks, after pressure from disability activists. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_curb_cut_effect
Chapters 📖
00:00-01:39 Intro
01:40-04:56 Nick’s hearing loss experience and its impact on his design work
04:57-07:28 Hesitancy about ‘accepting’ your disability
07:29-11:42 Recognizing the impact of stigma in healthtech
11:43-16:39 Why designing ‘for disability’ benefits everyone
16:40-21:00 Who gets to decide how assistive tech looks?
21:01-29:14 Starting Overtone and early design challenges
29:15-32:43 The technology behind Overtone
32:44-37:03 Rejecting ‘one style fits all’ for assistive tech
37:04-38:38 Designing for ears is stupidly difficult
38:39-41:22 Nick’s unique marketing strategy as a small startup
41:23-46:46 Recontextualizing Overtone as designer hearing tech
46:47-50:14 When your brand becomes the product category
50:15-51:06 Outro
Welcome back to The Designer Will See You Now podcast, where we talk health, design, and advocacy. Today we’re excited to introduce TWO award-winning illustrators and animators, Emily Holden and Annie Campbell. They lead Now Medical Studios and uniquely specialize in medical illustration and animation, which means creating visualizations for educational materials, infographics, medical devices, and more. Their work blends art and science in order to bring medicine to life in an understandable and engaging way (as they say, “if your granny can understand it you’ve done a good job”). Through intentional choices around aesthetics, sound design, and representation of people of different backgrounds, Annie and Emily tell a story that challenges established notions of how healthcare should look. Join us in talking to them about how medical illustration and animation impacts startup investment, considerations for accessibility and representation in their work, and myth-busting inaccurate depictions we see day to day.
Show Notes 🖊️
Chapters 📖
00:00-01:44 Intro & showreel
01:45-05:39 What is medical illustration and how Annie & Emily got into it
05:40-09:39 Do you need a medical degree to be a medical illustrator?
09:40-11:12 Working creatively AND analytically
11:13-12:30 Non-traditional paths into medical illustration
12:31-14:25 Comparing to Ola & Bella’s career journeys
14:26-17:46 Making dry topics engaging
17:47-21:35 Explain it like you’re talking to your granny
21:36-26:15 Make stuff that you’d want to look at
26:16-28:53 Dark sexy medicine vibes
28:54-35:37 Shockingly inaccurate depictions out in the world
35:38-41:14 How great visuals help medical startups win investors
41:15-45:17 Accessibility considerations
45:18-50:26 Diversity in medical illustration
50:27-52:34 Favorite projects
52:35-53:39 Outro
In one of our favorite conversations yet, we welcome Ti Chang, an award-winning industrial designer whose work in ‘pleasure jewelry’ explores the connection between pleasure, wellness, and societal taboos. She is the Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer at Crave, which boasts among its line the Vesper: a vibrator necklace “often seen on A-list celebrities that inspire sensual empowerment and provoke cultural conversations.” As a design leader with 23 years of experience in the industry, Ti emphasizes the importance of improving inclusivity in the industrial and product design space. Today we are excited to speak with her about designing and testing pleasure products, combining activism with her design process, and the importance of having the conviction to make what you want to see in the world.
Show Notes 🖊️
Chapters 📖
00:00-02:06 Intro to the episode
02:07-04:52 Ti tells us about herself and what inspired her to design pleasure products
04:53-06:37 The inspiration behind the brand name “Crave”
06:38-08:01 Ti’s design philosophy
08:02-12:57 Challenging self-pleasure stigma
12:58-14:53 How Ti started her own brand
14:54-18:01 What is the line between pleasure products and jewelry?
18:02-20:58 Pleasure jewelry as a personal statement
20:59-24:06 Why even A-list celebrities are wearing Ti’s vibrator necklace
24:07-25:14 The need for “artful” design
25:15-29:26 Surprises from usability testing pleasure products
29:27-32:15 Pleasure jewelry is just getting started
32:16-41:24 The challenges and opportunities of being a female industrial designer
41:25-48:40 In the age of AI, human conviction is priceless
48:41-56:16 Designs that make us feel seen
56:17-56:41 Outro
Welcome back to our second After Work, where we grab a little drink and just chat about designs that we’re interested in. If you had to design a women’s health clinic brand from scratch, what sort of tone and online experience would you create? What does that tell us about the female healthcare experience? These are the questions we explore in this episode, as we do a casual design crit of a women’s clinic website. While we missed the drink for today’s episode, we did not miss out on the fun thanks to our guest participant Perry, who is particularly interested in questions of identity, how people define it and what it means to them. Join us to unpack what gendered themes manifest in healthtech and who truly benefits from catered, online care.
Chapters 📖
00:00-2:30 Intro
2:31-6:22 Why ‘built by women, for women’ strikes a chord
6:23-8:59 Letting patients know: we’re in this together
9:00-11:23 Taboo health conversations for men vs. women
11:24-15:20 Expectations around aging for men vs. women
15:21-20:31 The health insurances accepted reveals who gets access to the service
20:32-21:33 If this website was a person, who would they be?
21:34-22:40 What resonated for us
22:41-23:53 Outro
For our second ever guest episode we’re thrilled to have Maja Magnusson, CEO of Care To Translate, a medical translation tool that helps break down language barriers between patients and care providers. A growing shortage of interpreters around the world can lead to long waiting times and loss of agency for patients, and stressful work environments with a higher risk of misdiagnosis and malpractice. Care to Translate aims to address this issue in order to make healthcare more dependable and accessible for everyone. We talked to Maja about why culturally-sensitive medical translation is critical for staff and patients, the risks of relying on machine translation, designing for emergency scenarios and accessibility, and what it’s like running a startup.
Show Notes 🖊️
In this episode we talked to CEO Maja Magnusson about her medical translation app, Care to Translate. For more information check out the product website https://www.caretotranslate.com/
At 40:51, Ola references Care to Translate’s interview with machine translation literacy expert Lynne Bowker. The full interview can be accessed here https://www.caretotranslate.com/news/the-most-common-pitfalls-of-machine-translation---and-how-to-use-it-safely-in-health-care
At 55:11, Ola references Care to Translate’s Red Dot Award win. For more information see Care to Translate’s article on their success here https://www.caretotranslate.com/news/care-to-translate-wins-red-dot-award-2025-for-its-multilingual-medical-translation-app
At 59:50, Ola references a conversation about functional design from Episode 3 https://open.spotify.com/episode/6WMNzw8wJJirmtDBL7lsq0?si=NwEWqvV6T3ipe3XwIQ4twA that discussed Megan Metzger’s Figma talk ‘Designing for Climate Disaster’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akudd_qFWrg
Chapters 📖
00:00-08:33 Introducing the Care To Translate app and CEO Maja
08:34-11:52 Notable use cases for Care To Translate
11:53-14:33 How Care to Translate is designed differently for staff versus patients
14:34-16:50 Patients? Care Recipients? The challenge of finding the right word for healthtech ‘users’
16:51-21:27 Is Care to Translate addressing the original problem it set out to solve?
21:28-23:37 How language barriers affect health outcomes in minority and immigrant populations
23:38-28:34 Having meaningful conversations with stakeholders around addressing health inequality
28:35-30:19 The patient version of Care to Translate
30:20-35:13 Handling cultural nuances in medical translation
35:14-40:45 Data used to train the live translation feature and why the Phrase Library is Care to Translate’s holy grail
40:46-51:38 The risks of relying on machine translation and the importance of educating users of AI tools
51:39-54:54 How Care To Translate is designed for use in urgent, high-stakes situations
54:55-01:00:55 The Care to Translate design process for accommodating different user abilities, backgrounds, and contexts
01:00:56-01:05:07 Care To Translate’s commitment to accessibility
01:05:08-01:09:35 Care to Translate’s designer ‘cheat sheet’
01:09:36-01:12:11 Maja’s collaboration with her design team
01:12:12-01:16:41 How the app has changed since its first launch
01:16:42-01:20:48 How Care To Translate was able to scale so quickly in the medical industry
01:20:49-01:28:43 Maja’s experience as CEO of a healthtech startup
01:28:44-01:29:19 Note about the Cost Saving Calculator on the Care To Translate website
01:29:20-01:33:44 Maja’s favorite word she’s learned since working on Care to Translate
01:33:45-01:43:41 Bella & Ola wrap up
This month we’ve got a special mini-episode format we call Refills, where we top up your prescription of healthtech topics and trends. Join us, your co-hosts Bella and Ola, for a chat about grief, ambient scribing, and AI’s role in both. With questions like: Could AI’s potential for creating new experiences with passed loved ones interrupt our natural grieving process? Does saved time through ambient scribing mean more rest for doctors and intentional time with patients, or will it increase pressure to see as many patients as possible? We'll explore how the answers are often not black and white and how these considerations impact our work as designers.
Show Notes 🖊️
At 01:06, Bella brings up Tharin Pillay’s article ‘‘The Dead Have Never Been This Talkative: The Rise of AI Resurrection,’ which she references throughout the first half of the episode for evidence on false memory and AI’s role in grief. The article is available here https://time.com/7298290/ai-death-grief-memory/
At 06:56, Bella explains how memory is dynamic, and can warp over time based on how you retell it. More information can be found in this article from Northwestern University https://womenshealth.obgyn.msu.edu/blog/memory-telephone-game
At 15:11, Ola references the controversy around the use of Anthony Bourdain’s voice in the posthumous documentary Roadrunner. Helen Rosner’s New Yorker article dives deeper into the ethics discussion https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/the-ethics-of-a-deepfake-anthony-bourdain-voice
At 21:25, Ola describes Abridge’s competitive features and their most recent $300 million funding round. More information can be found at the Abridge website https://www.abridge.com/ and the Wall Street Journal’s article on the latest valuation https://www.wsj.com/articles/abridge-whose-ai-app-takes-notes-for-doctors-valued-at-5-3-billion-at-funding-801825f3
At 32:29, Ola references Jakob Nielsen’s article on how AI is changing our UI paradigm again for the first time in 60 years https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ai-paradigm/
Chapters 📖
00:00-01:05 Introduction
01:06-07:40 What is false memory and our own experiences
07:41-11:49 How generative AI could impact the grieving process
11:50-16:14 Ethical considerations of AI-generating people who have passed
16:15-20:19 AI ‘relationships’ and validation without accountability
20:23-22:42 What is ambient scribing and why did Abridge just get $300 million in funding
22:43-25:05 Pros and cons of AI medical transcription
25:06-27:44 Cognitive laziness
27:45-30:06 What will doctors do with the time saved by AI
30:07-33:53 Our responsibility as designers of AI products
Cheers! 🥂 We’re back with our very first After Work episode, where we grab a little drink and just chat about designs that we’re interested in. Today that’s AsthmaTuner, an app and companion bluetooth device that help people with asthma live without symptoms. Bella started as AsthmaTuner’s first designer and continues to lead design 8 years later, and Ola had a stint designing at AsthmaTuner for 2 years - so with 10 years between us, we’ve got a thing or two to say about the thinking behind the user experience. So pull up a chair and dive deep with us as we unpack how to motivate patients to follow their treatment plans, why encouraging patients to be honest instead of perfect matters, and much more.
Show Notes 🖊️
Curious to learn more about AsthmaTuner? All information is available at https://medituner.com/ (https://medituner.com/se/ for listeners in Sweden). AsthmaTuner is available in Sweden and is currently undergoing clinical trials in the US.
At 03:42, Ola discusses Megan Metzger’s Figma Config talk, “Designing for Climate Disaster.” The full talk is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akudd_qFWrg - check it out!
At 36:30, Ola references Oinas-Kukkonen and Harjumaa’s Persuasive Systems Design model. For more information on their model and research, their work is available to download at https://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol24/iss1/28/
Chapters 📖
00:00-03:23 Introduction
03:24-17:30 Our thoughts on Megan Metzger’s ‘Designing for Climate Disaster’ talk
17:31-22:59 What is AsthmaTuner?
23:00-28:06 How to test your asthma in the app
28:07-35:21 AsthmaTuner’s fan-favorite feature (or how to motivate patients to make testing a habit)
35:22-40:27 Breaking down persuasive design
40:28-48:13 The medication “adherence” problem
48:14-54:09 How AsthmaTuner’s new medication log helps patients be honest instead of perfect
54:10-59:12 What makes a desirable healthtech product
59:13-01:00:33 Wrap-up
Welcome back to the Designer Will See You Now podcast! This episode is a big milestone for us as we welcome our very first guest, Dr. Jared Sun, to discuss the importance of listening to and co-designing with patients. Jared is a Stanford-educated ER doctor and medical researcher who works part time in LA and part time in the Western Cape of South Africa. His work in South Africa focuses on helping under-resourced communities build more effective emergency care systems tailored to local needs, and over 10 years he has helped train over 10,000 first responders across 100 communities. Join us as Jared explains how the success of these initiatives can be boiled down to one simple approach: “shut up and listen.”
Show Notes 🖊️
At 19:07, Jared references that due to its history of apartheid, the majority of people in impoverished communities in South Africa are “black or colored,” and explains that “colored” is its own race classification in South Africa. For listeners who are unfamiliar, in South Africa “colored” describes someone of mixed-race ancestry and has different connotations from the use of the word in the United States. For more information,
https://www.semafor.com/article/09/24/2023/how-to-understand-the-coloured-role-in-south-africas-history
At 41:32, Ola references the work of Doug Eby, Vice President of Medical Services at the Southcentral Foundation Nuka System of Care, who has worked to create a community-based medical system with native people in Alaska. His collaboration with tribal leaders and ‘patient customers’ has resulted in an improvement in health outcomes from single-digit percentiles to the 75th percentile. For more information, we highly suggest listening to Doug’s episode on Vardmarktpodden (English starts at 01:33) https://open.spotify.com/episode/40EfCjqBHwqL4VgKnW8Mzm?si=wlabvOLBRfmS8PJ6zAfKpQ
At 01:05:57, Bella references Boston Consulting Group’s redesign of Karolinska Hospital in Sweden, and how their assumption-based approach disregarded the true needs of patients and providers and resulted in a failed project. For more information, https://www.mitti.se/nyheter/inte-hangt-med-har-ar-alla-nya-karolinskas-skandaler-6.27.117406.cbb1e921df
Chapters 📖
00:00-07:23 Bella’s time at the OFFF design conference
07:24-08:35 Introducing Dr. Jared Sun
08:36-11:54 How Jared got started working on ER systems in the Western Cape of South Africa
11:55-18:04 “Aggressive humbling” and the importance of co-design
18:05-24:55 Building trust and collaboration with local communities
24:56-29:34 What is a community-based emergency care system
29:35-31:52 How ER information is spread through local communities
31:53-35:49 There is no ‘one size fits all’ and other unexpected learnings
35:50-43:14 Variations of community-based emergency care systems in South Africa and worldwide
43:14-49:52 Patient-centeredness means being adaptable instead of vilifying patients
49:53-54:34 The transformative impact of community-based emergency care systems in Western Cape townships
54:35-01:01:18 The importance of local communities owning their medical systems and decentering yourself as a designer
01:01:19-01:04:08 The worst day of the year for the ER and Jared’s send-off message to our listeners
01:04:09-01:16:42 Debrief with hosts Bella and Ola
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