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DESIGNING A HEALTHIER WORLD CCAD students provide creative solutions to health care challenges.
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n 2018, Joel Colyer put in a call to Columbus College of Art & Design. In his role as the global portfolio director at Cardinal Health, Colyer oversees the purchasing of surgical gowns, drapes and fluid management products. Colyer says he reached out to CCAD because although surgical gowns are medical devices, they’re also pieces of apparel, and he wanted a designer’s viewpoint on garment improvements. “CCAD has a great reputation for apparel design, among other things,” he explains, “so I thought it’d be interesting to see if we could get an external viewpoint … to try to then make [surgical gowns] more comfortable, more flexible—things that people would be more willing to wear.” Nine CCAD students participated in the project, which ran throughout the fall 2018 semester. Colyer says, typically, as gowns become more protective, they also become less comfortable. Students studied the design, cut and fabric of surgical gowns and found ways to incorporate new materials that would provide better ventilation. At the end of the class, they presented their designs to the surgical gowns marketing team at Cardinal Health. Colyer says the goal of the collaboration isn’t for him to lead students to solve a problem with one solution, but rather for them to utilize their creativity and experience to craft ideas that can improve a product’s performance. “The value that I [got] out of the engagement the most [was] their external perspective, both as design students but then also as nonmedi-
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▲ Top, Joel Colyer from Cardinal Health shares his insights with surgical first assist Kathy Volpe and CCAD students Jessie Andrade and Autumn Dang (both Master Of Design in Innovative Design Strategies, 2020) during a design thinking workshop to reimagine interpersonal communication in the surgical operating room. Photo by Stephanie Wott Bottom, a young recipient tests a 3D-printed prosthetic prototype designed by a team of students from CCAD and other area schools during the Form5 Prosthetics 2020 CO-FAB workshop. Photo by John Youger
cal people,” he says. “A big one to me is diversity of thought, so that’s one reason I [wanted] to leverage them–to see how they look at our problems and what kind of solutions they [could come] in with,” he says. This project is just one example of CCAD students using their design skills to shape the health care industry;
Columbus College of Art & Design
other collaborations can focus more on individual solutions. Several CCAD students participate annually in CO-FAB, a multiweek workshop hosted by the nonprofit Form5 Prosthetics. Teams are made up of students from different schools and disciplines—including industrial design, biomedical and mechanical engineering, athletic training, and physical and occupational therapy—along with industry professionals. Each team is paired with an individual with a limb difference or differences; after discussing the individual’s mobility issue, they work together to build a prosthetic or a device to assist the individual. “For the students, it’s all about interacting with this person, hearing their story, gaining an understanding of what’s going on, building empathy and looking thoughtfully for solutions to support the individual,” says John Youger, assistant professor of industrial design at CCAD. “As designers, we strive to improve people’s lives, and when it’s so personal, it’s hard not to feel that.” As health care continues to evolve, CCAD students are uniquely qualified to not only excel in the industry, but to help it evolve. “If you’re in health care and you’re wondering, ‘Why look to CCAD?’ when it comes to solving challenges,” says Youger, “the answer is, ‘Because you’re looking for somebody who looks at your problems in a different way.’”