As an expert in Design Thinking methodologies, I am driven by people. I believe understanding people along with their needs, barriers, triggers, motivations, and values is the foundation of designing game-changing products and services that re-imagine the healthcare experience. With this in mind, I have facilitated over 200 workshops with a variety of stakeholders and mastered the art and science of creative problem solving to develop solutions in a wide range of healthcare settings. In the last 5 years, I have developed over 50 strategic alliances and designed unique collaboration opportunities for clients to experience the spoken and unspoken needs of the end-users and translated them to user-centric digital health products. With over two decades of experience in science and the practice of healthcare, I am equipped with the right tools, methods, and mindsets needed to develop people, products and services that will flip the current healthcare system on its head.

Why people, you may ask, to the mix of products and services? Because in my opinion thats the missing link in order to make digital tools in healthcare implementable, scalable and sustainable. The needs and solutions have to involve people on either end of this; Providers and Public (I won’t use the word patients here since health is important to everyone not just to those who are sick). Any person who wants to live their healthiest life and providers who are in the business of keeping people healthy have their skin in this game. Instead of disruption and innovation happening to them, how can we create agency so that the frontline clinicians/providers can start taking control and create the change they want, to provide the care that keeps their patients holistically healthy? How can consumers of healthcare become part of this disruption? How can there be a more participatory approach in creating the digital tools that are necessary to get healthcare out of the 19th century and into the 22nd? These are the questions I have started to answer through my work as an innovation catalyst. And yes, I have started thinking of the next century already since I have a baby who I hope will live to see and experience the 22nd century and I would like him to have total control over his health!

So, coming back to the workshops that I have facilitated; these workshops delve deep into human psychology of participants’ inner condition, their willingness to be open minded, to be vulnerable, to speak up, to listen intently, to overcome cynicism and fear and through all of this I found that they are all bound by a common thread - their creativity!

People are creative even the ones who don’t think of themselves as the “creative types” - everyone just needs better tools, a solid structure and a common language that acts as bridge between their left and right brains. I have learnt that leaders are just as afraid of making mistakes as the front line staff at any workplace. The hierarchical walls need to come down and all levels have to be given the safe space to work together collaboratively to solve problems in a creative manner. These are the observations and practices that started with my work with Dr. Karen Tilstra, and eventually gave rise to the CAPS model that is now the foundation of my workshops aimed at disrupting people, increasing their agency to create waves, to be loud and in the process disrupt themselves and thrive in their creativity!