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
