The Health Design Podcast

Professor Gary David returns to The Health Design Podcast to explore how we can design experiences that foster connection, belonging, and shared meaning — especially in healthcare settings.

Drawing on his background as a sociologist and experience designer, Gary discusses the concept of "communities of the moment" — how shared experiences, from ringing the bell after chemotherapy to using inclusive pronouns like "we" and "team," can elevate everyday interactions into something greater than the sum of their parts.

The conversation takes a deeply personal turn when Gary shares the story of his daughter's surgery at a Children's Hospital and the baffling, jargon-filled denial letter he received from his insurance company. It becomes a case study in systemic misalignment — where different parts of a healthcare system work against each other, leaving patients and caregivers confused, anxious, and financially vulnerable.

Gary introduces his upcoming book, The Un-Wow: Your Blueprint to Experience Design of All Kinds, which argues that the most meaningful experiences often come not from grand "wow" moments but from small, everyday acts — what he calls micro-affirmations. He makes the case that everyone in a healthcare system, from surgeons to coders to cleaning staff, plays a role in shaping the patient experience, and that technical competence alone doesn't make someone a good leader.

The episode closes with a reflection on workplace culture, the difference between doing and leading, and why experience design is ultimately a people business.

Learn more at theunwow.com and listen to Gary's podcast, Experience by Design.

Dr. Eugene Manley joins the Health Design podcast to share a harrowing personal experience navigating the US healthcare system after foot surgery. While on Medicaid, he encountered medical racism, falsified chart notes, and a hospital system determined to discharge him before he was ready — despite his surgeon's objections. He describes how physical therapists misrepresented his condition in his records, blocking his access to skilled nursing care and leaving him vulnerable at his most fragile moment.

The conversation broadens to explore how capable people are misread by systems not designed to understand them. Eugene discusses his late-diagnosed ADHD, the cognitive cost of masking in workplaces, and how neurodivergent individuals — especially those who are also Black or from underserved backgrounds — are forced to fit boxes that waste their potential. He and host Moyez Jiwa examine the economic and human cost when talent walks out the door because it doesn't conform, and the troubling rollback of DEI initiatives in the US.

Eugene also discusses the funding crisis facing Black and Hispanic-led nonprofits, the chilling effect on scientific research, and his upcoming book "Too Much and Not Enough: Neurodivergence, Race, and Broken Systems." A powerful, candid conversation about what happens when systems fail the very people they're meant to serve.

What happens when the surgeon becomes the patient?

In this episode of the Health Design Podcast, we revisit a conversation with Minas Chrysopoulo — world-class breast surgeon and returning guest — who shares the story of a sudden and life-altering diagnosis that changed everything.

In the summer of 2023, Minas woke up with stiffness and numbness in his hands. What followed was a diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis, a gruelling journey through six different medications, and ultimately the decision to stop operating entirely — a career that had defined him for three decades.

Minas opens up about the shock of losing the thing he loved most, the surprising ways colleagues, patients, and friends responded, and what it truly means to forgive. He reflects on the unexpected gifts that emerged from his darkest period: a deeper gratitude, stronger relationships, and a clarity about what really matters.

Now channelling his experience as a surgeon and a patient into healthcare access and patient empowerment, Minas shares his perspective on informed consent, the constraints patients face when navigating the medical system, and why technology may be the most powerful tool we have for closing the gap between what patients need and what they receive.

This is a rare and honest conversation about resilience, identity, and what it means to build a meaningful second act.

In this episode of the Health Design Podcast, host Moyez Jiwa speaks with Laura Morris, an interior designer at Perkins&Will who specializes in healthcare environments.

Laura shares her passion for designing spaces that support the whole patient — not just the clinical procedure — with a particular focus on women's health. The conversation centers on the Nemours Children's Hospital Advanced Delivery Unit in Delaware, a recently completed project for high-risk pregnancies that Laura describes as her most rewarding work.

Key themes covered:

Design as healing: How environment directly affects patient stress, blood pressure, and willingness to communicate openly with clinicians.
The Nemours ADU project: A unit serving mothers who know their babies will need immediate medical care at birth. The design balances state-of-the-art clinical functionality (labor rooms, operating rooms with resuscitation areas, direct NICU corridors) with hotel-like comforts — spa-style bathrooms, nature views, personalized lighting, and even spaces for staff-hosted baby showers.
Sensory design: Patient-controlled lighting and color-changing artwork, digital signage replacing paper signs, noise-zoned corridors, and frosted windows bringing daylight into operating rooms.
Staff wellbeing: How good design improves staff retention and morale, with the nursing director reporting she still smiles walking in every morning.
Urban hospitals: Practical strategies for inner-city facilities without idyllic settings — borrowed light, biophilic elements, printed window shades, and accessible staff respite spaces.
Three lessons: Collaboration and shared vision, fighting for good design decisions, and proof that speed (18 months for 30,000 sq ft) doesn't have to compromise quality.

When Doctors Become Caregivers: Supporting Carers, Community Health, and the Limits of Quick Fixes

On the Health Design Podcast, Moyez Jiwa speaks with physician Tyson Garfield about how his perspective on patient experience shifted after his partner was diagnosed with a mucinous borderline ovarian tumor, underwent radical surgery, and faced a prolonged recovery that felt fractured despite good surgical care. Tyson describes the emotional labor, uncertainty before pathology, and using the AI tool OpenEvidence, as well as the need for caregiver support through primary care access and “the village,” noting the healthcare system funds individuals but not unpaid carers. They discuss rural and urban aging challenges including transport dependence, food deserts, limited internet, clinician retention, and fragmented community ties, and highlight community-focused care models like PACE and the importance of social workers. They also debate rising demand for semaglutides/GLP-1s, concerns about long-term effects such as sarcopenia, and the need for clinicians to be more vocal advocates for healthy aging and evidence-based information.

00:00 Welcome Back Tyson
00:39 Partner Diagnosis Shock
03:55 Recovery Gaps Exposed
05:09 Emotional Labor Uncertainty
09:13 Caregiver Needs Support
10:51 Supporting the Carers
12:04 Why Village Unfunded
15:14 Rural Aging Tasmania
19:48 Building Rural Care Models
22:09 Keeping Doctors Rural
26:28 Urban Isolation Caregivers
30:33 Sharing Info Legal Risks
32:56 Ethics What Matters Most
34:51 Social Drivers Physician Role
37:46 Food Deserts GLP1 Debate
42:13 Advocacy Against Quick Fixes
45:06 Closing Thanks Farewell