Portion of initial wire-frame
Snapshot of interactive application
“Effectiveness of iterative design in the development of interactive educational tool for medical students to learn Osteoarthritis diagnosis techniques”
Masters Research, Biomedical Visualization, University of Illinois at Chicago 2019
This research project focused on the implementation of iterative design methodology and the involvement of users to develop an interactive educational application to teach medical students about how to properly perform diagnostic tests involved in diagnosing Osteoarthritis (OA). While the burden of musculoskeletal diseases is overwhelmingly prevalent, non-specialist clinicians are often ill-equipped to complete basic musculoskeletal exams due to the lack of focus on musculoskeletal education in medical schools. This exploration of iterative design and participatory design with a target audience is unusual in the field of biomedical visualization, but could be very beneficial to the field in terms of saving time, money, resources, man power and on top of that producing visualizations that speak to the audience’s wants and needs in a stronger manor. Providing an example of cyclical iterative design techniques, audience feedback, and expert evaluation of decision making within the field of biomedical visualization has the potential to inform other projects dealing with an infinitely large range of case studies within different sectors of visualization. Focusing on a case study dealing with creating an educational tool to help medical students diagnose OA, the researcher developed an application that can eventually be adapted to be used in medical schools and allow users to practice basic musculoskeletal exams on an interactive knee simulator that visualizes internal anatomy. It has the potential to be a beneficial tool to learn about healthy knee anatomy and function, as well as how OA specifically appears and affects the knee joint and movement. The focus on OA may help students understand exactly what to look for in terms of pathology and clinical test results, potentially preparing them for earlier and more concrete diagnoses of OA in their future practices. In early design stages, medical students examined the initial wire-frame, or outline, interface and structure of the prototype, and were surveyed on the prototype’s preliminary design. The researcher then implemented suggestions and revised the application based on this feedback from the target audience. The research committee evaluated the prototype to determine if audience feedback from the preliminary design phase was effectively translated into changes in the application that addressed areas of concern, highlighted areas of audience interest or solved problems in understanding.The methodology presented in the study demonstrates the benefits to testing biomedical visualization stimuli with target audiences early on in the design process to quickly pinpoint areas of misunderstanding and to validate design decisions.
“Thoughts on Similarities Between Artists and Scientists and the Benefits of Studying Visual Art in the Healthcare Field”
Honors Thesis, Murray State University 2017
Science and art connect in many stimulating ways in terms of the thinking behind each, their intuitive and experimental process and their relationship to culture and humanity. The construction of our world as we experience it is why science was created, and in order to organize and comprehend realities, visualization and imagination are essential. Scientists and artists both use abstraction to understand our reality. The involvement of both science and art in shaping modern culture as well commenting on humanitarian events is an important similarity amongst both realms. The connection between artistic and scientific thinking begins to illuminate how studying visual art is beneficial to developing healthcare professionals. Studying visual art in medical school has the ability to improve observational skills (therefore improving the accuracy of diagnoses), increase a physician’s empathy, and to advance a healthcare professional’s ability to analyze digital image based testing. Furthermore, the use of visuals in healthcare, often created by medical illustrators, ties into the inspiration for my senior art exhibition demonstrating my synthesis of visual art and biological study. The work in my senior art exhibit is an exploration of inner molecular processes expressed intuitively and abstractly through oil paint.