Conference Agenda

Summary: When a respected wellness program discovers that its audience suffers from more stress than ever before, how might it stay relevant – and even become visionary? Behold The Journey, a program that observed its audience’s struggles during the pandemic and beyond, and then applied Design Thinking methods to launch a transformative new model.

Context, Methodology, Contributions, and Implications: The Journey is a twenty-year-old nonprofit program that brings restorative wellness experiences to overwhelmed youth counselors and educators (“youth workers”). This program hosted transformative offsite retreats for up to three cohorts of 25 selected applicants per year. In the pandemic’s wake, Journey leaders realized their audience faced pronounced and enduring mental and physical stress. The leaders responded in 2023 by inviting the Envisioneurs innovation studio to reimagine The Journey. The ensuing six-month project generated a holistic new model for health and wellness. This model attracted significant philanthropic grant support, launched in early 2024, and is now operational.

This innovation project applied a human-centered methodology. The leaders first assembled a “Dream Team” of practitioners in youth work, mind-body medicine, and innovation. This team then conducted direct field observations; interviewed 60+ stakeholders; studied published research on employee burnout, weathering, wellness, and engagement; and examined effective personal renewal programs from North America, Europe, and Africa. Subsequent visioning sessions were tailored to produce abundant, detailed, innovative, and interconnected solutions. Rapid ideation, model mapping, imaginative storytelling, and analogous inspiration were effective catalysts.

These methods generated significant insights and solutions. The Dream Team conjured up 200+ ways to help youth workers gain and sustain robust mental and physical health. The team also developed a Sailboat Model that illustrates youth workers’ needs in an evocative and holistic visual format; shaped a Compass framework with six cardinal points that define and structure the envisioned solutions; and aligned the solutions with both published research and youth workers’ expressed and observable needs. Furthermore, the team prototyped and validated several wellness solutions by staging exploratory retreats and blending the innovations into each.

The resulting new vision for The Journey operates on personal, enterprise, and ecosystem levels. This tiered design enables youth workers to experience relief, encouragement, and guidance through admissions and orientation activities that engender a sense of belonging; retreats that activate their senses; the launch of a peer community for longitudinal support; engagement of alumni in active mentorship; and coaching on self-led wellness practices. This project is producing a multiple-bottom-line return on investment thanks to its financial results for The Journey and its social impact in the field.

Research implications are that a) studies of health and wellness should address both the deficit and growth needs of subjects who experience stress; b) intense fields such as youth work require a longitudinal lens since secondary trauma, chronic stress, and weathering are prevalent and progressively destructive; and c) human-centered, illustrative, and multi-sensory design methods are well-suited for health and wellness studies; they make ideation comfortable and productive, elicit deep empathy, inspire memorable visuals, and yield captivating narratives about high-stress workers’ concerns and needs. Further studies could test and affirm the efficacy of the design methodologies and resulting health impact.

Animation is widely used to communicate healthcare science information in the digital era. But there were tested healthcare science animated films that were difficult to understand and not as effective as other media. As form produces meaning, the insufficiency reflects the form of the animated film does not match the target audience. Confusing choice of format can easily result in a different impact than expected, which will lead to failure of scientific communication and is not conducive to improving the target audience's medical cognitive level and improving their health status. Motion graphic animation and character animation are two important forms of animated film. The character and motion graphic animation clips introducing vaccination on the YouTube website were selected. The comments of the two forms are coded according to the rhetorical appeals of Logos, Ethos, and Pathos, and the rhetorical balance is evaluated. Then the characteristics of the persuasive impact are compared. The results show that the main difference between character animation and motion graphic animation is the impact of the personality of the character. The communication between fictional and real personalities between animated characters and the viewer will have important potential in the digital age.

The demographic shift towards an aging population presents profound challenges to healthcare systems worldwide, particularly in regions experiencing population decline or aging. Comprehensive hospitals in these areas are confronting closures or relocations due to economic restructuring, exacerbating the accessibility of medical benefits. In response, governments and local authorities are progressively expanding online-based medical services, leveraging Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) data to establish service platforms. This study presents an interim report of user research conducted as the inaugural phase of a collaborative project aimed at mitigating the risks of polypharmacy among chronic disease patients within this evolving healthcare governance landscape.

The integrated platform service seeks to empower chronic disease patients by leveraging CDSS patient data to prevent drug allergies stemming from complex medication regimens. By facilitating informed decision-making in daily healthcare management, the service aims to proactively mitigate the risks associated with polypharmacy, thereby reducing the need for physical hospital visits. Rooted in the convergence of digital technology and social innovation design, this study addresses the challenges posed by aging societies, striving to integrate and coordinate healthcare services while promoting resilient communities through social innovation.

At its core, this study represents the initial phase of design research, with a primary focus on fundamental user research. The significance of user research for CDSS data-based services lies in the imperative for patients to possess both medical and digital literacy to effectively manage their health. Given that fatalities resulting from drug allergies primarily affect the elderly population, who often exhibit low levels of digital literacy, there is a critical need to explore strategies for facilitating easy access to services for seniors.

Accordingly, this research shifts its focus towards identifying strategies to enhance ease of use for seniors, acknowledging the importance of considering users' experiences, cultural nuances, and digital literacy levels. Leveraging recent advancements in AI technology, the study explores the development of user-friendly features that align with user research findings, potentially enhancing the utility and scalability of services. Initial interviews conducted with digitally literate chronic disease patients residing outside metropolitan areas, with the assistance of a national comprehensive hospital, verify the validity of insights gleaned from user research.

Furthermore, insights from case analyses of existing applications, such as medication adherence and drug allergy prevention apps, are integrated to bridge the gap between theory and practice. This comprehensive approach ensures that the developed service closely aligns with the needs and capabilities of the target user demographic.

In conclusion, this research endeavors to delineate the direction for the evolution of human-centered technological services. By prioritizing user-centric design within the context of technological convergence, the study asserts the pivotal role of design in advancing online healthcare services and social innovation. By considering the perspectives and needs of local seniors, this research contributes to the broader discourse on advancing healthcare services and social innovation initiatives.