Teaching health care innovation to medical students

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Care Innovation
• Design Thinking Mindset

Background:

• Assessing the impact of design thinking courses on medical students.
• Evaluating improvements in self-awareness related to design thinking metrics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the efficacy of a design thinking and health care innovation course.
• To measure changes in medical students' self-awareness of the design thinking mindset.

Main Methods:

• Pre- and post-course assessment of the design thinking mindset.
• Paired t-test analysis comparing scores before and after the Innovation & Design Thinking (IDT) course.
• Target population: medical students enrolled in the IDT course.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements observed in tolerance for uncertainty, embracing risk, human-centeredness, mindfulness, team knowledge, experimentation, abductive thinking, envisioning new things, and creative confidence (p < 0.05).
• Greatest improvements noted in tolerance for uncertainty (0.48), mindfulness (0.47), and creative confidence (0.40).
• No significant changes in empathy, problem reframing, team interaction, multidisciplinary collaboration, openness to diversity, learning orientation, learning from mistakes, bias for action, critical thinking, desire to make a difference, or optimism.

Conclusions:

• Teaching design thinking principles and health care applications enhances medical students' self-awareness of the design thinking mindset.
• The course effectively improved specific aspects of the design thinking mindset among medical students.