DAC faculty members, Jill Tomasson Goodwin, Glenn Stillar and Dave Goodwin recently teamed up with Kelly Grindrod of uWaterloo's School of Pharmacy on a joint research project: to explore how to convince doctors and patients to reduce antibiotic use. According to the BBC and CBC reports, a large number people around the world will soon become very ill -- and many die -- of minor bacterial infections, mostly because of antibiotic overuse and the resulting bacterial resistance to most drugs.
Held at the REAP Felt lab in St. Jacobs, 16 people from many different walks of life including uWaterloo students, community professionals, artists, medical experts and business people, worked in small groups to answer the question: "What message, tactic, and platform can we use to influence people to not ask for, or to not prescribe, unnecessary antibiotics?"
Using collaborative ideation and design thinking methods, Ishan Shapiro and Marija Coneva facilitated the session using their REAP-supported collaboration software, MetaMaps. The overarching goal of the "thinkering session" was to find practical, easy-to-implement but effective ways to head off this upcoming health crisis.
This joint research project will continue over the summer. For more information please contact Dave Goodwin.