2021 BMC speaker series: Carrie Shaw, CEO and founder of Embodied Labs

New worlds in medical visualization: transforming care and service by embodying a first-person patient perspective through immersive technology

After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill with a B.S. in public health, Carrie spent two years working as a Peace Corps health education volunteer in the Dominican Republic. There she fell in love with the way visual communication tools have the unique potential to cross cultural, language and educational barriers. Following that time, Carrie worked as primary caregiver to her mother, whose diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's disease opened Carrie's eyes to the needs of caregivers and the aging-services workforce.  

Carrie completed a Master of Science in Biomedical Visualization at the University of Illinois Chicago in 2016.  Though she initially was enrolled in a Ph.D. program to continue studying the cognitive science of embodied cognition and healthcare education, the program's funding was cut. So, Carrie founded Embodied Labs and pursued commercialization of work that originated from her graduate master's thesis.  Since then, her company’s work has been featured by The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the History Channel, and national CBS television show The Doctors. Embodied Labs has won national and international awards from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the AARP, OpenIDEO, and the US Department of Education.

In her talk, New worlds in medical visualization: transforming care and service by embodying a first-person patient perspective through immersive technology, Carrie will share how Embodied Labs delivers person-centred education to formal and informal caregivers of older adults and her unexpected journey into entrepreneurship as a first-time founder of a tech startup.

Date and Time:
March 12, 2021
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
(One-hour presentation with question-and-answer session)

Missed the presentation? View the video recording here:
https://vimeo.com/526893899/6674573c93

The road less travelled–BMC Speakers Series 2021 full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2021/1/31/the-road-less-travelledbmc-speaker-series-2021

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Carrie Shaw works at the intersection of health education and virtual reality storytelling. She is the CEO and founder of Embodied Labs, a venture-backed growth stage startup and immersive training and wellness platform for professional and family caregivers. Follow @carrieonshaw on Twitter and @embodiedlabs on Twitter and Instagram.

Delivering person-centered education through immersive technology. Image credit: Embodied Labs

2021 BMC speaker series: Annie Tseng, Biomedical Communications Associate at Coactuate

Annie Tseng, MScBMC, Class of 2018.

Biomedical communications in the world of strategy consulting: finding comfort in ambiguity

‘Strategy’ and ‘consulting’ may sound ambiguous and scary and you may find yourself wondering, how could a biomedical communicator possibly fit in this world?

In big Pharma, hundreds of decisions are made everyday that impact multiple stakeholders across different countries. New treatments shift the way clinicians practice and how patients receive care. Strategic planning is critical in shaping the future of care.

As biomedical communicators, we are incredibly well-positioned because we thrive in that intersection — we have the curiosity for science, the analytical capabilities to tackle complex challenges, and deep understanding of tailoring communication to our audience so that we can effectively support strategic decisions. 

In this talk, Annie will share her experiences transitioning from BMC to strategy consulting, explore how the BMC skillset prepares us for the industry and how to advocate the value of biomedical communication in an ambiguous space.

Date and Time:
February 24, 2021
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
(One-hour presentation with question-and-answer session)

Missed the presentation? View the video recording here:
https://vimeo.com/520420430/9830cb94a7

The road less travelled–BMC Speakers Series 2021 full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2021/1/31/the-road-less-travelledbmc-speaker-series-2021

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Annie Tseng is a biomedical communications associate at Coactuate, where she works with health and pharmaceutical companies to solve complex, ambiguous challenges and support their strategic planning. Her work involves co-creation at the exec level through to the patient-level, and with cross-functional client teams, global medical experts and thought leaders, to design solutions that address unmet needs, can be implemented and have buy-in from everyone.

She discovered that she gets to leverage her critical sense-making, creative problem-solving and visual storytelling skills from BMC to take a human-centered approach to deliver outcomes and drive impact.

2021 BMC speaker series: Savanna Jackson, Senior Service Designer at Bridgeable

Savanna Jackson, MScBMC, Class of 2017. Photo credit: Bridgeable

Biomedical communications and human-centred design:
A perfect marriage to help solve the world’s big healthcare problems

Human-centred design is critical to creating products, services and communications that truly address the needs and abilities of those who use them. Nowhere is this more important than in the world of healthcare and medicine, which touches every human at one time or another.

Fortunately, the skills that prepare us to be effective biomedical communications specialists also equip us to solve human-centred design problems. We apply those skills in both medical illustration and in filling communication gaps in the healthcare world. 

In this talk, Savanna will give students a window into her path from the BMC program to the human-centred design field, explore what it looks like to practice this discipline in the context of biomedical communication, and show how incorporating human-centred design practices into your own work can help you better serve the needs of your audiences and clients.

Date and Time:
February 5, 2021
10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. ET
(One-hour presentation followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session)

Missed the presentation? View the video recording here: https://vimeo.com/509922130/87b9d934e3

The road less travelled–BMC Speakers Series 2021 full program: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/news-events/2021/1/31/the-road-less-travelledbmc-speaker-series-2021

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Savanna Jackson, a senior service designer at award-winning design consultancy Bridgeable, translates complex problems, processes and experiences into clear and actionable opportunities to create better, more human solutions. 

Jackson says that a Master of Science in biomedical communications from the University of Toronto equipped her with the visual design and communication skills to zero-in on the “so what?” From vast amounts of complex data, she builds meaningful narratives and conveys them through communications that both delight audiences and illustrate the optimal way forward. 

Jackson also holds a Bachelor of Science in biology from McGill University and an Ontario College Certificate in design and applied arts from George Brown College. Follow @jacksonsassy on Instagram and Twitter.

Translating complex experiences into human solutions. Image Credits: Bridgeable