UCI MIND Seminar: Designing Environments and Technologies to Support the Aging Body and Brain

Abstract: This seminar overviews the pathway for forming innovative transdisciplinary teams among clinical and nonclinical fields with the goal of identifying, developing and refining novel, effective and scalable solutions to enhance care for older adults with cognitive and physical impairment and to improve care providers’ work environment. The speaker discusses areas of opportunities for low cost and effective ways design can enhance care for older people with chronic illness and those with movement and memory disorders. She will also discuss the upcoming global and national trends toward integrative cross-disciplinary solutions for older adults led by the World Health Organization. Design for end-of-life care is a powerful transdisciplinary partnership that led to transforming the national codes and guidelines for hospitals and health facilities through the voices of providers.

Bio: Rana Zadeh is director of the Health Design Innovations Lab, associate professor in the Department of Human Centered Design, and Department of Systems Engineering at Cornell University and a visiting associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Zadeh comes from a background in architecture practice. With a doctorate in health systems design, Zadeh currently applies user-centered design and systems engineering approaches to enhance quality of life and quality of care for individuals with advanced or chronic illness.

This event is part of a seminar series hosted by UCI MIND (Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders). For questions, contact: bmander@hs.uci.edu and vswarup@uci.edu