Teaching health care innovation to medical students

Background To identify the efficacy of a design thinking and health care innovation course in improving medical students' self-awareness regarding design thinking metrics. Methods The assessment of the design thinking mindset was measured pre- and post-course. The target population included medical students at our institution participating in the Innovation & Design Thinking (IDT) course. A paired t-test was used to compare scores from before and after taking the course with p-value set at Students reported significantly improvements in the domains of tolerance for uncertainty, embracing risk, human-centeredness, mindfulness and awareness of process, team knowledge, experimentation, transforming in something tangible, abductive thinking, envisioning new things, and creative confidence (p < 0.05). The greatest improvements were in tolerance for uncertainty (0.48), mindfulness and awareness of process (0.47), and creative confidence (0.40). No significant change was observed in constructs such as empathy, problem reframing, team member's interaction, multidisciplinary collaborative teams, openness to diversity, being learning oriented, learning from mistakes, bias for action, critical thinking, desire to make a difference, and optimism to have an impact. Discussion Instructing medical students on the principles of design thinking and their applications in health care improves their self-awareness regarding the design thinking mindset.