KU News Release

Design department, medical center partner to promote health initiatives in rural Kansas

LAWRENCE — KU Design for Wellness, a consortium of educators and experts led by the Department of Design at the University of Kansas, has developed tools for colon cancer screening research for the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the KU Medical Center.

Kimberly Engelman, assistant professor of preventive medicine and public health, is principal investigator for a National Institutes of Health grant titled “Implementation Intentions to Promote Colon Cancer Screening in Rural Primary Care.” Engelman approached Gregory Thomas, chair of the Department of Design and creator of Design for Wellness, earlier this year looking for expertise for her study, which will evaluate the effectiveness of a new intervention based on the idea of “implementation intentions” for people who have not completed their colorectal cancer testing.

From February until August of this year, Design for Wellness programmed and produced two sets of interactive tools. Initially the group developed a tablet PC-based baseline assessment for rural Kansas primary care patients. While working with rural Kansas primary care physicians this summer, KU medical students introduced the program. The second tool involved an intricate electronic interactive telephone-based cancer screening survey script and data-entry system for the telephone counseling phase of the intervention. Information specialists are using this program to discuss with identified patients the merits and process for colon cancer screening.

Jeremy Shellhorn, assistant professor of design, designed and directed the PC-based in-office baseline assessment, and two KU graduate students in computer engineering, Zeeshan Ahmed and Asifuddin Mohammad, programmed the telephone-based program and data-entry system for the project. Thomas directed the entire project.

“The KU design department’s Design for Wellness listened to our needs and found the talent at KU that could make it happen, including both programming and design,” said Engelman.

Design for Wellness was created two years ago by Thomas to bring together experts from across campus to research and design health-related tools, environments and approaches at hospitals and health care facilities across Kansas.

“My father was ill in Wichita,” said Thomas. “When I would visit him, I was always struck at the generally poor design of equipment, nurse’s stations, hardware, etc. On the drive back one day, I realized KU had several faculty members who all consulted in the medical/wellness area and suggested we pool our resources and offer our service as a collective body.”

The goal of collaboration between the designers is to develop an integrated holistic design environment, based on scientific data, clinical experience and emotional/functional requirements. Design for Wellness addresses transgenerational concerns by designing products and environments compatible with physical and sensory impairments associated with aging, which limit major life activities.

Some other projects recently coordinated by Design for Wellness are:

— Design and launch of HawkHealth, http://hawkhealth.ku.edu. The site was created by health professionals to help KU students learn to live healthy lifestyles.

— Assessment of the design of the new emergency room at North Kansas City Hospital, led by Richard Branham, professor of design; Kent Spreckelmeyer, professor of architecture; and KU students. The students presented a paper on the subject at Harvard University.

— Design and development of “Touch to Screen,” a touch-screen questionnaire that focuses on colon cancer detection.

— Study and analysis of the KU Cancer Center’s brand image.

As one of the largest concentration of health/wellness educators and practitioners located at a premier research university, Design for Wellness will continue to partner in research endeavors and develop the future of Kansas health care.

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