BME Seminar: Health Innovation at the University of Cape Town

Abstract: I will present an overview of a recently introduced graduate programme in Health Innovation at the University of Cape Town, and focus on its core component, a course grounded in design thinking, which is also open to graduate students in Biomedical Engineering. The programme and the course are aimed at exposing students to the realities of the social context in South Africa as well as to the way in which context impacts on innovation, both technological and otherwise. Biographical sketch: Tania Douglas is a Professor in the Division of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cape Town, where she also holds the Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering & Innovation and is the Director of the Medical Imaging Research Unit. She completed degrees in electrical/electronic and biomedical engineering at the University of Cape Town, Vanderbilt University and the University of Strathclyde, and conducted postdoctoral research in image processing at the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. She also completed an MBA at the University of Cape Town. She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Global Health Innovation, an open-access journal focusing on social and technological innovation for improved health, particularly in developing settings. She is spending the second half of 2017 as a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University.