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Transitioning from cure to care systems.

The Health and Wellness Design Lab is an interdisciplinary research and teaching group. Our research explores how design can improve health and wellness on an individual to a societal scale, and transition from cure to care systems. We study these relationships and develop tools to empower community members, health workers, organizations, governments, and others to confront complex questions related to health and support social and physical infrastructure for a healthier world. Our aim is to enhance equity, justice, and dignity of people, building a culture of health and wellness through the design of products, environments, and services. We are affiliated with the Center for Design at Northeastern University, Northeastern University’s Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, the NuLawLab at Northeastern’s School of Law, and Politecnico di Milano. Our projects have received funding from: Google, The Kresge Foundation’s Arts & Culture Program, National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

Faculty

Students

Current 

  • Uri Seitz, Interdisciplinary PhD Candidate, College of Arts, Media and Design
  • Abigail Ryan, Health Sciences major, Bouve College of Health Science, 2025

Past 

  • Krystal Anne Abbott, MPH Candidate, Bouvé College of Health Sciences
  • Yechan Yang
  • Madison Thomas

Projects

Publications

Ciliotta Chehade, Estefania; Arnold Mages, Michael; Govindbhai Bhungalia, Heni; Haley, Shannon; Seitz, Uri; Kim, Miso; Ciuccarelli, Paolo; Maffei, Stefano; Villari, Beatrice; and Bianchini, Massimo (2024) Mapping patient-centered design practices and actors within stakeholder networks to reimagine healthcare, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. [link]

Michael Arnold Mages, Estefania Ciliotta Chehade, Sara Jensen Carr, Miso Kim, Susan Mello, Madison Thomas & Yechan Yang (2023): Carvings in stone: design research for public health investigations in the age of COVID-19, Design for Health [link]

Kim, Miso; Arnold Mages, Michael; Maffei, Stefano; Ciuccarelli, Paolo; Villari, Beatrice; Bianchini, Massimo; Catyb, Aliyyah; Ciliotta Chehade, Estefania; Seitz, Uri; Abbott, Kristal (2022) Empowering Patientship. Exploring the conceptions of patient-centeredness via definitions and cases. [link]

Solano, A., and Kim, M. (2022) Health information design model (HIDEM): A replicable model of the design process for data-intensive applications in health informatics, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June – 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. [link]

Kim, M., Jackson, D., Sievert, J., and Wilson, M. (2022) Locked down with abusers: Designing for the dignity and autonomy of domestic violence survivors during the Covid-19 pandemic, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June – 3 July, Bilbao, Spain [link]