Digital Medical Humanities and Design Thinking

Millennial learners live in a digital, highly connected, always-on world, where short-form, real-time visual communication is the preferred form of social engagement. For these students, the boundary between consuming and producing media is virtually nonexistent, largely enabled by user-friendly digital interfaces on their smartphones. These twenty-first-century approaches to interaction present an opportunity for health humanities educators to collaborate with millennial learners in reimagining health communication for the digital age. By engaging in collaborative, participatory design practices focused on solving real-world health communication problems between patients and health professionals, health humanities students can increase their digital literacy, enhance patient engagement, and develop valuable problem-solving and leadership skills. This chapter describes the “Medical Media Arts Lab,” a case study in using digital humanities and design thinking to cultivate twenty-first-century communication skills for future health professionals. It begins by describing the institutional context for the course, the Medical Futures Lab at Rice University. The essay then describes how to approach designing this kind of course and, finally, provides practical guidance on how to teach the course.