Abstract:
This webinar explores how participatory co-design approaches can transform the development of technologies for older adults and their care partners, with a focus on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Dr. Nicole Werner highlights how traditional “designer knows best” models often result in technologies that fail to meet real-world needs, leading to poor adoption and limited impact. Through compelling stories and examples, she demonstrates how human-centered design engages end users in every stage of development to create solutions that are usable, acceptable, and scalable. Attendees will learn about integrating co-design within the NIH Stage Model for behavioral intervention development, strategies for meaningful caregiver engagement, and methods to align user needs with commercialization goals. By the end of the session, participants will understand how to apply these principles to create age-inclusive technologies with greater potential for sustained use and real-world impact.
Biography:
- Nicole Werner, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Health & Wellness Design at Indiana University Bloomington
- Dr. Werner is also the founding Director of the Center for Health by Design. Trained in Human Factors and Applied Cognitive Psychology, Dr. Werner is an interdisciplinary boundary spanner, merging disciplines through a human-centered design approach to patients, caregivers, and other partners in co-designing interventions that transform the patient journey in ways that address a diverse range of patient-centered outcomes. With nearly $27 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, her research has co-produced innovative but realistic technology and care process interventions to improve the quality and safety of healthcare within and across healthcare settings and in the home, with a particular focus on care partners for people living with dementia and families caring for children with medical complexity. She is the recipient of the American Psychological Association Division 21 Earl Alluisi Award for Early Career Achievement and her publications have received the American Medical Informatics Association Consumer Health Paper of the Year award and the Applied Ergonomics Best Paper of the Year award. Among other appointments, she has served as President of the American Psychological Association Division on Engineering Psychology, Chair of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Healthcare Technical Group, and Associate Editor for the IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering.