eHealth NSW recently partnered with the Association of Independent Schools NSW, industry partners, and Murrumbidgee and Southern NSW Local Health Districts (LHDs) to design and deliver a Digital Health Design Sprint Day for high school students.
Two hundred local students attended the Design Sprint Day in Albury to learn about digital health literacy and digital health careers.
Local staff from Murrumbidgee LHD and Southern NSW LHD, as well as industry partners from Amazon Web Services, NTT and VMware, helped facilitate the day. They were on hand to share their expertise and guide the students as the teams grappled with their design challenges. These events wouldn’t be possible without the support of LHDs and industry partners.
How the students built their skills
A design sprint is a five-stage process for validating ideas and solving challenges through rapid prototyping.
The students were presented with real-world digital health challenge scenarios. They used design thinking to map out the problems and explore solutions, before creating prototypes and pitching them to a judging panel.
The day was designed to spark curiosity in the students and encourage creative problem-solving, while introducing them to new health and digital literacy concepts. They were encouraged to question why things are the way they are and were empowered to test new ideas and solutions.
Students were excited to try a different style of learning for the day. “I thought it was a fun program and I loved meeting people from different schools,” said one student.
The ideas and prototypes the students came up with showed their creativity and innovation.
Why we partner with schools
Partnering with schools is an opportunity to give back to the community.
It’s a way for us to share our knowledge of the health system and digital health technologies. This can contribute to building greater health literacy in the community.
These partnerships connect us to local communities. They allow us to hear fresh perspectives on the health system than can help inform our program planning, design and delivery.
It also helps create greater awareness about career opportunities in health, digital health and technology. After attending a digital health challenge day, we hope that students are inspired to continue their Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM) subjects.
