Level Up Proceedings
Level Up Proceedings
Critical Topics in Healthcare Delivery Design
In February 2025, 42 healthcare designers and physician leaders from 30 organizations across the US and Canada convened at the Institute of Design in Chicago. We asked: How might we scale the impact of design in health systems?
Collectively, participants identified topics deemed critical to the value and performance of healthcare delivery design. Participants formed writing groups and met post-event to develop these ideas, supported by the Equitable Healthcare Lab.
The publications below present the output of Level Up writing groups, released for community discussion and review.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to us:
- Kim Erwin, Director, Equitable Healthcare Lab, kerwin@illinoistech.edu
- Flora Massah, Design Fellow, Equitable Healthcare Lab, fmassah@illinoistech.edu
Pre-Publications
Announcements
Level Up Becomes Co-Design Health
In February 2025, the Institute of Design’s Equitable Healthcare Lab hosted Level Up, an event bringing designers and health system leaders together. This was a pivotal moment for design leaders working inside healthcare systems: it surfaced a shared recognition that our field needed a way to create connection, learn from each other and build community in an ongoing fashion.
What began as a one-day gathering of innovators, researchers, and system leaders has now evolved into Co-Design Health, a multidisciplinary organization dedicated to advancing the practice and impact of human-centered design in healthcare systems. The Level Up papers (see pre-publications above) capture the insights, tensions, and opportunities identified during that convening—forming the intellectual foundation for Co-Design Health as it moves from a catalytic event to a sustained, collaborative community shaping the future of design in health systems. The Equitable Healthcare Lab at the Institute of Design will serve as the academic arm of this work, continuing to facilitate rigorous research, support scholarly collaboration, and steward the evolving knowledge base of the field.
Co-Design Health is a national community of designers, educators, practitioners, researchers, and health system leaders committed to transforming care from within healthcare systems. We work at the intersection of design and healthcare operations to strengthen professional practice, share methods and evidence, and elevate the role of human-centered design in improving patient, family, and staff experiences. Through online programming, in-person convenings, and collaborative projects, Co-Design Health connects those advancing design in health systems—helping our field learn, grow, and make meaningful, systemic change together.