The Pain Project: Creating Tools for Shared Decision-Making is awarded a Sappi "Ideas that Matter" grant.

The Sappi "Ideas that Matter" grant program recognizes and supports designers who, in partnership with a nonprofit organization, promote positive change. Our partner, Hill Country Health and Wellness Center, is a community clinic in rural Shasta County, California that began in a double-wide trailer in 1985 and has grown into a Federally Qualified Health Center serving patients regardless of their ability to pay. Together we are creating tools that create awareness about pain treatment options, invite discussion, help build trust, and work toward better patient outcomes through shared decision-making.

Since Sappi introduced "Ideas that Matter," this is the first time a University of California design team has been a grant recipient. The official press release was emailed to 40,000 people worldwide, and awarded projects are featured across Sappi's "Ideas that Matter" media. We are excited to be in such amazing company!
 

How can you capture your creative process without interfering with the journey itself? We explored this question in our first pop-up event at the end of October. DiPi’s Tracy Manuel presented her ideas to a packed house. Documentation for Designers (and other people who need more sleep) offered helpful tips, tricks, and advice for anyone who wants to record their process effectively. Hint: Rather than gathering everything up at the end, it’s much easier to capture it along the way.

With over 50 people in attendance, this pop-up satisfied a Senior Mandatory Advising requirement for UC Davis undergraduates in the Design department. Have an idea for a pop-up? Share your ideas with us and look for more DiPi pop-ups in the near future!
 

DiPi Director Susan Verba was invited to present at the inaugural Advancing Pain Relief Symposium on November 30th at UC Davis in Sacramento. Organized by the Center for Advancing Pain Relief, the symposium brought together a diverse group of researchers from across UC Davis who are working to relieve pain, reduce suffering, and improve quality of life. Susan’s talk, “Doctors + Designers: Bridging Disciplines, Improving Pain Communication,” featured DiPi’s work partnering with a community clinic in rural Shasta County, California, and with UCD Medical Center to create tools and educational materials for better pain communication.

Other design-related presentations included Ian Koebner’s talk on Art Rx, a novel public health partnership to reduce social disconnection and pain, and Fadi Fathallah’s talk on simple solutions being developed by the Agricultural Ergonomics Research Center to help California farmworkers cope with the risk of musculoskeletal pain. You can find the Pain Relief Symposium program here.
 

Every three years the International Institute for Information Design (IIID), based in Vienna, Austria, recognizes outstanding work in the field of information design. The 2017 competition is open for submissions until February 28. Winning entries in 15 categories will be featured in the IIIDaward book and in the IIIDaward exhibition tour, which travels to multiple venues around the world. DiPi was honored with two IIIDawards in 2014. This year, director Susan Verba travels to Vienna to represent the U.S. on the jury panel at Sigmund Freud University, March 24–25. Using an open jury format, the meeting will include a public session revealing jurors’ rationale for why the chosen work was selected for an award. Both students and professional designers are welcome to submit their work.