Example Reflection – Visualization

Challenge

I currently work in an ophthalmology company as a Surgical Refractive Specialist, where I am in  charge of training on the calculation of the intraocular lenses and the use of equipment for  doctors and their surgical staff during cataract and refractive surgeries.

As a company, we provide medical equipment, intraocular lenses and all the supplies required  during surgeries, mainly cataract surgeries. Cataract is the main cause of blindness worldwide.  “In 1990 an estimated 37 million people were blind around the world and 40% of them because  of cataract. However, 90% of blind people live in the poorest sections of the developing world”  [1]

This represents my main challenge, trying to reach the largest number of surgeries to the largest  number of people, especially those who live in the most remote and extremely poor places, in  order to provide them with a better quality of life.

Selection.

I chose the Visualization tool because it makes the information more tangible and concrete and  helps to show people the different options through an image. It takes us beyond just using words.  As the authors mention in the article “Data visualization: Principle, Tools and useful Tricks” Data  driven visuals attract more attention, are easier to understand, and assist in getting your  message accros to the audience quickly. It is essential to mention that people get 90% of  information about their environment from the eyes and usually people remember 10% of what  they hear, 20% of what they read and 80% of what they see [2]

Application.

I began to participate as a volunteer in free surgery days for people from remote places and with  few resources. In which, all the material required for the surgeries was donated by the company  in which I work. Despite the fact that there were many people who were attending surgery every  day, I could see that there were still many people who were not attending. So I took on the task  of investigating what was happening. It should be noted that this happened in the most remote  places and where they had little or no access to education and health services. That is why many  people did not attend, since they were afraid, they did not know what was going to be done and  they even had wrong ideas about the procedure or it was their own relatives who did not let them  go.

So, I began to carry out campaigns in which I showed patients what the procedure consisted of  through photos and videos of before and after surgery and that they could see the real impact it  had on each person. I also used videos with testimonies of people telling their stories and  focused on hearing what their needs and concerns were. In this way, I managed to convince  patients and their families to attend the surgical sessions

Insights and Approach

With these procedures I learned to connect more with people, with their needs and concerns. I  learned that visualization is really a very valuable tool that allows us to go "further" through  images, videos and testimonials. And all this together allowed me to contribute a little to improve  the quality of life of each of them. This course make me see the tool in a new way and the most  important is always focus on people, I also learn how to start with the desire to make meaning  as opposed to make money

In the next time I would definitely use the visualization tool again since I consider it extremely  essential, but additional, I would also implement the storytelling tool because in developing  projects, design and innovation, it is essential to develop a deeper level of empathy with the  people. I learned with this implementation that  is very important to connect with people. We  have to always remember that design thinking is not just about process and questions, it is also  about people, as we saw it in the course. Even if we haven´t had a huge impact yet, we can  demonstrate our potential. Remember, revolutionary impact always starts with an idea!

References.

[1]  Allen,  D  (2006)  Cataract  and  surgery  for  cataract.  Recovered  from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1502210/

[2]   Chausova, A. Ivanova, A., Malysheva, V (2019) Data Visualization: Principle, Tools and  useful Tricks” Recovered on June 18th from https://www.owox.com/blog/articles/data- visualization/

