Equitable Healthcare Lab’s Level Up Event Brings Designers and Health System Leaders Together

The Institute of Design’s Equitable Healthcare Lab (EHL) recently hosted Level Up: Accelerating the Role of Design in US Health Systems, a groundbreaking convening sponsored by University Hospitals and UChicago Medicine’s Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and Innovation that brought together 42 healthcare designers and physician leaders from 30 organizations across the US and Canada to address the question: How might we scale the impact of design in health systems?

This 1.5-day event, held February 28–March 1, 2025, marks a growing movement in design to impact how our healthcare system operates. By creating a space where practitioners from competing health systems could openly share challenges, solutions, and visions for the future, the convening positions the Equitable Healthcare Lab at the Institute of Design as a leader in fostering cross-institutional collaboration.

Attendees discovered a community of practice rarely brought together in such an intimate, collaborative setting. While designers within individual health systems often work in relative isolation, Level Up created connections that transcended organizational boundaries.

Kim Erwin and Meghna Prakash from the Equitable Healthcare Lab worked with Chris McCarthy of the Innovation Learning Network to implement an “Open Space” concept where attendees generated their own agenda based on shared interests and challenges.

Rather than presenting predetermined content, the Open Space approach, facilitated by Chris, empowered participants to propose discussion topics, sign up for breakout sessions, and develop actionable next steps. This participant-driven structure ensured that conversations addressed the most pressing issues facing healthcare designers today.

Critical challenges emerged over the course of the event:

1. Solving Access Challenges: Despite technological advances, access remains a persistent barrier. How might design address both physical and digital barriers that prevent equitable healthcare delivery?
2. Developing Metrics that Matter: How can we measure design’s impact in ways that resonate with healthcare leaders? What metrics truly matter for assessing our work?
3. Guiding Responsible AI Implementation: As AI transforms healthcare, what role should designers play in ensuring these technologies enhance human connections rather than diminish them?
4. The ‘Role of Business in Design’ Argument: Should designers be responsible for making business cases for their proposals, or is this better handled by cross-functional teams where design and business objectives are integrated as a shared responsibility?
5. Embedding Implementation in Design, or “Getting to Know the Plumber“: Can designers expand their role to include the often-invisible implementation work? How do we avoid the “handoff gap” where great designs fail to reach patients?
6. Connecting Design to Health Equity: How do we ensure design approaches actively reduce rather than reinforce existing healthcare disparities?

What distinguished Level Up from typical conferences was its focus on actionable outcomes. Each breakout group developed concrete next steps and committed to continuing collaboration beyond the event.

What we experienced in Chicago is that this work is reaching critical mass, getting on the radar of senior healthcare system leadership, and building momentum. EHL is hopeful that the relationships and ideas cultivated at Level Up will catalyze the movement further.

By hosting events like Level Up, the Institute of Design continues its tradition of advancing the field of design while addressing complex societal challenges through collaborative innovation.