DesignMeets x Rotman BDI: Designing for Healthcare Futures

Step into the future of healthcare with this hands-on workshop exploring how futures thinking can expand design practice. Learn about the forces reshaping healthcare and gain a practical introduction to futures methods — from scanning signals and identifying drivers of change, to building plausible future scenarios and designing for uncertainty.

In a world of rapid technological advancement, shifting demographics, and systemic disruption, the ability to interpret signals and navigate ambiguity has never been more critical. Futures thinking offers a powerful strategic lens, helping organizations move from reactive decision-making toward proactively imagining and shaping possible futures. This session introduces practical frameworks for thinking beyond the immediate horizon, equipping participants to engage complexity with greater creativity, adaptability, and confidence, whether in healthcare or any other domain experiencing rapid change.

The session will be structured as an immersive collaboration:

Method

BDI Academic Director Emma Aiken-Klar will introduce the foundations of futures thinking and its application to design practice, outlining how signals, drivers, uncertainties, and scenarios can be used to explore and design for alternative futures.

Context

Health futurist Zayna Khayat will guide participants through the evolving healthcare landscape, highlighting key signals of change and major drivers shaping the future of health and care systems.

Sprint

Participants will work in teams to apply these methods to a plausible future healthcare scenario, exploring emerging tensions, identifying opportunities, and developing concepts, strategies, or artifacts designed for that world.

Share Back

The session will conclude with teams sharing their outcomes, followed by collaborative discussion and reflection.

Learning Objectives

• Explore key drivers and uncertainties shaping the future of healthcare
• Understand how futures thinking can expand design and strategic practice
• Apply futures methods to develop ideas, concepts, or strategies for uncertain future healthcare contexts

Zayna Khayat

Adjunct Professor and Executive-in-Residence, Health Sector Strategy, Rotman School of Management | VP, Client Success & Growth, Teladoc Health Canada Health Futurist

Emma Aiken-Klar

Academic Director of the Business Design Initiative, Rotman School of Management

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Rotman School of Management, 105 St George Street, Toronto, Canada

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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