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Get the most interesting and important stories from the University of Pittsburgh.School of Nursing launches Equity Design Thinking Educational Series
The University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing has launched the free, online Equity Design Thinking Educational Series to build knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure design justice.
Design justice is how the design of technologies influences the distribution of risks, harms and benefits among various groups of people. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of design justice after it upended access to care and illuminated the impact of structural racism as a cause for a widening gap of health disparities.
“The goal is to train a research workforce that has the content expertise and skills to meaningfully address gaps in scientific advancement that are not well served by a more siloed approach to research and training,” said Annette DeVito Dabbs, a School of Nursing professor.
“My assessment of the gaps in training for members of this transdisciplinary research workforce included the limited exposure to the root causes for health disparities and the need for a better understanding of design justice,” she said.
The series is web-based and covers a wide range of topics related to equity design.
Its content was developed by a team of scholars internal and external to the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, UMASS Amherst, and Cornell.