On the Edge of Health and Design

Today we’re re-welcoming Demi Yoo, a marketing professional with a passion for health and wellness. Demi returns to update us on her health and wellness journey, and her latest passion project, The Spiritual Self Company. To paraphrase Demi, “this is our first time living this life, so we’re all just figuring this out!”. If you relate to this episode, please leave us a comment and rating on your f...

Culture and age both shape how we experience and talk about mental health, for better or for worse. Culture and age influence our beliefs about mental health, how comfortable we are in asking for help, and how others treat us when we disclose mental health challenges. In this episode, Nita and Sylvia explore how culture and age shape mental health based on our personal and professional experiences...

To kick of 2026, we spoke with Kiki (Kajal) Kamdar, a health and wellness advocate who shared her past experience as a caregiver for a partner experiencing mental illness. Kiki turned to hiking as a way to combat stress, connect with nature and develop her community. Through hiking, Kiki learned to "live a bipolar life" on her own terms, with self compassion. If this episode resonates wi...

This month, we highlight Aideen Carroll, Advanced Practice Nurse Educator and champion of mental health nursing! Of note, Aideen shared her love of the history of mental health/health care and provided examples of the design and evolution of products and processes towards improving experiences for both patients and providers. Aideen’s key takeaway was challenging future generations with normalizin...

In this summer recap episode, your cohost, Nita shares her personal reflections following her recent Heritage Journey to Kenya, Africa. Nita revisits the concept of Designing your Life and shares how her own Indian, African and Canadian heritage shapes her current quest to find communities of belonging. Are you looking for your community? Feel free to reach out to us with comments, questions and r...

This month, we spoke with Manjit Hansra, a pharmacist, breathwork facilitator and entrepreneur. Manjit shared his personal story of burnout working as a pharmacist and pharmacy owner. After attending wellness retreats in different countries, Manjit became certified as a breathwork facilitator and founded Rx for Renewal, a company focused on helping healthcare leaders live a life of joy through bal...

This month, we chatted with Demi Yoo, a marketing professional who is also a self-described health and wellness junkie. Demi discovered meditation during a dark period in her life and found that this helped her mental health. Demi shared her most challenging meditation experience to-date, a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat that had her meditating for a total of 100 hours! In Demi’s words, this...

In our May episode, your cohost Nita shares her recent experience with working night shifts in a healthcare setting. According to the Institute for Work and Health (non-profit organization based in Toronto, Canada), there are several adverse health effects associated with shift work, particularly with long-term exposure to working night shifts. Mitigation strategies are recommended at both organiz...

This month, we spoke with Ju Eun Lee, a geriatric psychiatrist based in Toronto, Canada. Ju Eun is a passionate advocate against ageism. She highlighted the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of ageism, which refers to stereotypes around how we think, feel and act towards older adults. Globally, one in two of us are ageist! Ageism is associated with poor health, social and economic impac...

In celebration of pharmacist awareness month, your cohost Nita (pharmacist/designer/podcaster) is interviewed by Sajid, a colleague from their Toronto Go-Getters Toastmasters club. Sajid and Nita discuss Nita's communication journey with Toastmasters and how that intersects with her roles as a pharmacist and podcaster. We hope you take something of value from this episode to apply to your professi...

In our first video format episode, we welcome Dr. Cory Goldberg a Canadian plastic surgeon with experience in reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. Cory highlighted several challenges facing the Canadian healthcare system using the analogy of the Titanic ship sinking. Key opportunities for health system change include providing wellness services outside of our public healthcare system. Towards this...

In our January 2025 kick off episode, we interview Tye Farrow, a Canadian architect and author of the book Constructing Health: How the Built Environment Enhances Your Mind’s Health. Tye has initiated a global “Cause Health” movement aimed at raising expectations for design as the basis for total health, which extends beyond environmental, sustainability and physical health to encompass our mind h...

For our final episode of 2024, we interviewed Anita Simon, a Canadian healthcare designer with diverse experiences ranging from academia, industry, non-profit and patient advocacy. Anita emphasized the need to shift our healthcare systems from industrial practices focused on improving cost and efficiency outcome measures towards measuring outcomes that truly matter to patients and families. Anita...

In this month's episode, we welcome Faizal Kassam, a Canadian family physician, who completed medical school/training in Australia. Faizal is currently working as a family physician in Australia, making him the most remotely located guest we have interviewed to date! Based on his dual perspectives as a physician and a patient/caregiver, Faizal identified several challenges facing the Canadian heal...

In season 3 of our podcast, we’re getting back into interviewing people working and playing On the Edge of healthcare and design!  In this month's episode, we welcome Jean-Francois Couture from Applications MD.  Applications MD is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving care in medical resuscitation. As the Director of Operations for Applications MD, Jean-Francois oversees the strategic p...

In this much anticipated follow-up episode with Viviana (arQ RunicoS), an interdisciplinary artist based in Montreal, your cohosts discover that her Forest in Colour has germinated and grown into an exhibition! To celebrate Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, Viviana's exhibition will be showcased at La Galerie Atelier Lucie Michel in Montreal from September 12 through 29, 2024. Viviana shares her ins...

Your host, Nita, decided to try another solo episode based on her thoughts during her latest run along the Beaches area in Toronto. Nita shares her practice of acknowledging other runners and how that might translate into acknowledgement in healthcare settings. Notably, the #hellomynameis campaign launched by Dr. Kate Granger in 2013, shows us how designing patient focused healthcare experiences s...

In this month’s episode, your co-host, Nita, flies solo and shares personal updates on: SIC Health, our Mental Health Project, and the future of this podcast. This episode was inspired by Season 3 of the Netflix series, Bridgerton, and the brilliant monologue delivered by character Penelope Featherington! We're looking for your input on our Mental Health Project. Vote on LinkedIn for what you see...

In this month's episode, we continue with our Learning On the Edge series, this time experimenting with an audio/video format! We introduce a Design for Social Innovation Tool - the Impact Gaps Canvas . This tool allows users to take a systems leadership approach to innovation in their careers and/or initiatives/projects. Our video includes an image of the tool (see Resources below for link) and a...

In this podcast episode, your cohosts demystify how to define the real problem and why it's a crucial step in the Design for Health process. We briefly review the Double Diamond Method from our last episode and explain how insights revealed through our Discovery Interviews were used to draft a Problem Statement. We'll review two tools that could help you - Empathy Mapping and the 5 Ws. Finally, we...

In Season 2, we return to Learning On the Edge (with SIC), where we'll explain the key elements of the Design Process using the Double Diamond method. In this month's episode, we focus on the first diamond - Discovery, and specifically, the tool - Discovery Interviews. We define Discovery Interviews, share some tips for conducting your own interviews, and provide examples of interviews we’ve condu...

Welcome to Season 2 of our podcast, On the Edge with SIC! This season, we'll experiment with some shorter length, learning oriented episodes. In this episode, we review responses to our most important question from Season 1 - What does On the Edge mean to you? We've compiled 6 responses to this question from our Season 1 interviewees around the theme of knowledge and learning. As well, we share ou...

For our final season 1, episode 14, we interview Dr. Natasha Datoo, a pediatric oncologist and palliative care physician. Natasha shares her professional journey and personal experiences around "death and dying". We discuss our society's taboo associated with "death and dying" and how we might shift our perspective through enhanced communication. Finally, Natasha describes what a "good death" look...

Liliana Rodriguez is an award winning Senior Service Designer and User Centred Design (UCD) leader, working for NHSE (National Health Service England) for Digital Medicines. Her education includes a BA in Product Design, an MA in Interaction Design, and a PhD in Digital Services. Liliana has worked in commercial, non-profit, and higher education environments on design projects in health, GDS (Gove...

This month, we're excited to host Dr. Peter Jones, an associate professor at Toronto’s OCAD University. Peter teaches in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation and Design for Health MDes (Master’s in Design) programs. Peter shares some of his professional journey in product and service design, consulting and academia with us. He also defines what Systemic Design is within the context of Systems Le...