Good design
is good
for healthcare
Introducing med+Design
We believe that good design is good for healthcare. We created med+Design in partnership with UNC’s FastTraCS program to offer the initial practical training that is essential to entrepreneurship.
01
Course Timeline
- med+Design is an 11-week, two-module training program for teams of medical innovators developed by Trig, an award-winning innovation design firm.
- The coursework teaches deeper understanding and empathy for the problems in healthcare, before committing to a solution. This is fundamental to creating a strong foundation for your team to build upon.
02
Coaches
- Modules are led by experienced design coaches, guiding your team through the process culminating in the creation of testable prototypes, all while instilling core Design Thinking techniques such as Journey Mapping and Divergent Ideation.
- Our courses are designed with your busy schedules in mind. Team members dedicate only 2-4 hours per week.
03
Applications
- Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, with new Empathy modules launching every 5 weeks.
- We have limited slots available for the Empathy module so please apply in a timely manner if you are interested.
- Applications to the Creativity module are granted on an invite only basis to qualified teams.
04
Teams
- Teams that qualify for Creativity have fully completed Empathy and have created a path to finding unique, potentially industry leading solutions.
Don’t just take our word for it
We weren't focused on the outcome as much as the process. It was human focused over monetary. Every week we iterated closer to what the true solution for our stakeholders was. Ty’s team was amazing in facilitating those conversations while our team was driving the solution.
There are not many opportunities to identify that there is a problem with something and be able to nurture solutions to it. Walking through it step by step to identify the stakeholders, discover their needs and wants, and basing a solution off of that made this workshop a very unique and worthwhile experience.
After going through the Empathy and Creativity phases, our work that was pulled out of text and put into prototype pictures was proof to funding agencies that we have done the work in the pre-award phase to understand the needs of our stakeholders. We used this proof in three grants and have already been awarded one of the three from this outside the box approach.
A huge thank you to Kelly for her fantastic storyboard illustrations which perfectly described how our device concept will be used by the patient and provider. The images were so well done and told the story of our device so clearly… we were really blown away!
I really liked having feedback from the other clinical teams during the workshop. It’s really fun to hear from people who have no idea what we’re working on, just to see what they come up with.
Huge thanks to Ty and Kelly. My colleague Nick and I came into this with a general idea of a clinical problem and some notions of solutions but all of it was kind of nebulous. Ty and Kelly helped us break it down, re-conceptualize, and then rebuild this into a better articulated problem and far more robust solution (with fantastic visuals - thanks Kelly!).
The coaching between sessions was invaluable. Our project wouldn't have come together without that individual coaching from Trig. The pacing of the workshop was perfect for what we need as providers to both stay involved, yet not take too much time away from seeing patients.
Having the opportunity to see how our project would interact with clinical problems - in real time - made the problem solving process so much more tangible.
This is awesome! I can confidently speak for everyone else that this has been an eye-opening experience. While you can't measure creativity, I have felt my personal creative confidence grow as a result of this workshop. There was a fun reveal at the end where everyone brings their best version of the idea after a period of stealth mode to say, "Check this out!".
Who you are
You are a Clinician or Physician who is frustrated with everyday problems. You might have an idea of starting to solve some of these problems… but you don’t know where to start.
You are interested in Design, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, but aren’t ready to take a career break for the BioDesign fellowship.
You are busy, tired, and overworked, but can set aside 3-4 hours per week towards realizing your ambitions.
Regulatory red tape and outdated processes are not allowing you to bring the solutions that are clear to you but not to everyone else.
You are now giving yourself permission to take control of your future and drive the change that you are ready to see.
Leave with the creative mindset, tools, and techniques to manage risk and uncertainty through Design Thinking frameworks.
Improve your ability to find novel solutions based on the unmet needs of your patients and community stakeholders.
Understand the journey of entrepreneurial medical innovators starting from zero to creating testable prototypes.
Generate unique solutions that would result in a monopoly in the form of patents, company positioning, and category creation.
A new perspective that not only is the Design Thinking process fun to do but also reveals multiple potential solutions to your identified problem.
Meet your Design Coaches
Ty is the Founder and Principal of our award winning design firm, Trig. He has spent the last 15 years supporting entrepreneurial teams and studying the essential ingredients for success. As a service provider, Trig offers a unique combination of insights and ideation, product design, brand, and digital development capabilities that are essential to helping healthcare companies achieve transformative design.
As a career industrial designer and innovation practitioner, Ty has managed hundreds of new product development programs through the process of opportunity identification guided to commercialization. He started his career as an intrapreneur within Home Depot, first joining as an Olympic-hopeful sponsored athlete. He demonstrated to senior executives the value of creating new product development capabilities within the retailer – then on to lead the portfolio of internal new product programs.
Ty is also a proud father and husband that loves the outdoors and sharing this passion with his family. While he has a love for kayaking the rapids of North Carolina, he will happily spend his day by the lake taking in the views and teaching his kids how to fish.
Kelly is the Architect of our med+Design coursework where she delivers a curriculum that not only drives medical innovation but meets the needs of the practitioners that we serve. Natural curiosity about the world fuels her to uncover the physical, cultural, and environmental forces that shape people’s lives. Connecting the seemingly unrelated dots to inspire new product opportunities is Kelly's sweet spot. While she's comfortable living in the fuzzy front-end, she strives to help others push their creativity threshold as well. This unique expertise has led her to educate the next generation of innovators their journey of creating novel patient-centered solutions.
A constant explorer in both her professional and personal life, on any given weekend you can find her on adventures throughout Los Angeles to the beach, hiking trails, or a tasty new restaurant. She loves bringing her dog out to the fun as well and continually creating art in various mediums including pottery and drawing.
Why we are the course for you
Healthcare is full of big, complex problems that are often a combination of many smaller problems. The med+Design modules help you make headway by tackling manageable pieces of the puzzle.
We teach methods for rapid prototyping that may seem counterintuitive - fail fast to succeed sooner. Insights gained from prototyping-to-learn accelerates your progress towards uniquely innovative outcomes. Teams that successfully complete the course are often better prepared to apply for the funding needed to take your program to the next level.
med+Design is specially tailored with your needs as a working physician in mind. You are on a very busy schedule and need flexibility in the commitments that you pursue. Our offering is fully remote with minimal meeting times, leaving you and your team to complete the work together when it best makes sense for you.
Time and time again, we have seen teams spend not only years bringing their solutions to market but also millions of dollars only to find out that what they set out to do in the end was not viable in the first place. Let us provide you the tools needed to find out if your mission is on the right path or if there is another way to your destination that was not so clear before.
We believe that your creative genius is the key to unlocking a future that is better for us all. Take a chance on yourself, healthcare will be better for it.
med+Design Modules
Module 01: Empathy - Clarifying Unmet User Needs
10 credit hours (5 Weeks)
Module 02: Creativity - Generating
Early Concepts
15 credit hours (6 weeks)