OCAD Health Summit's photostream

November 23 - November 25, 2009 @ OCAD

"Cultural Knowledge and the Healthy Society: A Research & Innovation Summit"

A groundbreaking international summit hosted by the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD). Over 200 researchers, policy makers, professionals, and funding council representatives were in attendance to hear dozens of speakers and participate in panel discussions and strategy sessions. All events were free and open to the public.

The summit, presented as part of OCAD’s Digital Futures Initiative, was born of the belief that adding the knowledge and insights from design, cultural industries and creative and artistic research to health research will lead to a more effective system of health care and prevention as well as foster technological innovation.

Cultural Knowledge and the Healthy Society brings together leading international and Canadian thinkers in the areas of design, art/creative research, cultural industries, health, humanities, social science, science and engineering to explore the possibilities of this interdisciplinary collaboration.

“The summit will explore ideas like how design thinking can help to understand mental health, and to help direct health research to better outcomes in rehabilitation research,” explains Dr. Michael Owen, Vice-President of Research & Graduate Studies at OCAD. “We will ask questions into how artists and designers can chart patterns of psychosis; discuss how design research is important to successful health technology adoption; and explore the collaborative possibilities between artists, designers, social scientists and medical researchers in the medical visualization space.”