[2018] Bon Ku, MD, MPP: The Designer of Health

Bon Ku, M.D. (@BonKu) is the Assistant Dean for Health and Design and an Associate Professor at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. He is the founder and director of JeffDESIGN, a first-of-its-kind program in a medical school that teaches future physicians to apply human-centered design to healthcare challenges. Since we recorded this episode back in 2018, Bon has started his own podcast, Design Lab, co-authored a book, and practiced medicine through a global pandemic. Bon has spoken widely on the intersection of health and design thinking (TEDx, South by Southwest, Mayo Clinic Transform, Stanford Medicine X, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) and serves on the Design and Health Leadership Group at the American Institute of Architects. In 2016, he received the Health Care Innovators Award from the Philadelphia Business Journal. In addition to all this, he still practices emergency medicine, serving in the Emergency Room 2 nights a week. In this episode, Bon tells the story of his immigrant family beginnings, how he became inspired to turn medical school on its head using Design Thinking, and what he and his program is doing today to solve Philadelphia's biggest health problems. This Episode is supported by Crossbeam. Crossbeam is hiring! Check out their available positions here.