Kate Sellen
Faculty of Design
I am an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Design at OCADU and Canada Research Chair in Health Design (Tier 2). I lead the Health Design Studio at OCAD U which I founded in 2018 and was the inaugural director of the Health Design Master’s Program at OCADU in 2016. I spent my early career as an interaction designer leading design research, digital strategy, and interaction design in the private sector. I now work on bringing an inclusive and interdisciplinary design approach to healthcare design challenges. Much of my work focuses on design for emergency medicine and on high sensitivity topics, including the dosing, ordering, tapering, and management of opiates, communication at end of life, and public health communication in urgent situations. Part of my research considers how different types of truth and knowledge inform the work I am engaged in, how different experiences of health and wellbeing might come together through participatory and inclusive design research processes, and how designed objects, interactions, and experiences can be personally relevant, community relevant, and evidence based. I bring an interdisciplinary approach to projects and engage both in more formalized quantitative methods and arts-based methods such as installation. My overall agenda includes supporting design orientated change in healthcare more broadly through collaboration, joint projects, and knowledge sharing. She previously held positions at University of Toronto’s Technology for Ageing Gracefully Lab, Knowledge Media Design Institute, and AT&T.
Recovery and Renewal of Co-Design Approaches in Health: Protocol for a Realist Synthesis
JMIR Research Protocols
Published: December 31st 2024
Recovery and Renewal of Co-Design Approaches in Health: Protocol for a Realist Synthesis (Preprint)
Published: December 31st 2024
Digital Communication at End-of-Life: Exploring Attitudes and Experiences Before and After the End of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Preprint)
Published: December 31st 2023
Considerations for the design of overdose education and naloxone distribution interventions: results of a multi-stakeholder workshop
BMC public health
Published: December 10th 2023
Designing a Sensory Kit to Improve the Environment for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Pediatric Emergency Department
Journal of autism and developmental disorders
Published: December 10th 2023
Development of the Preferred Components for Co-Design in Research Guideline and Checklist: Protocol for a Scoping Review and a Modified Delphi Process
JMIR research protocols
Published: December 10th 2023
From design to action: participatory approach to capacity building needs for local overdose response plans
BMC public health
Published: December 10th 2023
Web-Based Co-design in Health Care: Considerations for Renewed Participation
Interactive journal of medical research
Published: December 10th 2023
Web-Based Co-design in Health Care: Considerations for Renewed Participation (Preprint)
Published: December 31st 2022
Design details for overdose education and take-home naloxone kits: Codesign with family medicine, emergency department, addictions medicine and community
Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy
Published: December 10th 2022
Resuscitation simulation among people who are likely to witness opioid overdose: Experiences from the SOONER Trial
PloS one
Published: December 10th 2022
Supporting community overdose response planning in Ontario, Canada: Findings from a situational assessment
BMC public health
Published: December 10th 2022
The Time Moving exhibit: Exploring perceptions of time in end-of-life experiences
Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy
Published: December 10th 2022
Corrigendum to "Mixed methods feasibility study for the surviving opioid overdose with naloxone education and resuscitation (SOONER) trial" [Resuscitation Plus 6 (2021) 100131]
Resuscitation plus
Published: December 10th 2021
Mixed methods feasibility study for the surviving opioid overdose with naloxone education and resuscitation (SOONER) trial
Resuscitation plus
Published: December 10th 2021
Protocol for a mixed-methods feasibility study for the surviving opioid overdose with naloxone education and resuscitation (SOONER) randomised control trial
BMJ open
Published: December 10th 2019
The Surviving Opioid Overdose with Naloxone Education and Resuscitation (SOON-ER) trial: a randomized study of an opioid overdose education and naloxone distribution intervention for laypeople in ambulatory and inpatient settings.
Type: Grant
Overdose deaths from opioids like heroin, oxycodone and fentanyl have reached record levels in North America and account for over 100,000 deaths per year worldwide. Overdose often affects young people, resulting in more years of life lost than HIV, pneumonia or influenza in Ontario. Overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) is a promising way to address this epidemic. OEND programs train laypeople to recognize overdose and give first aid, including the opioid antidote naloxone. Conventional OEND programs are mainly available through non-clinical community harm reduction centers, involve lengthy patient training, and do not reach many of the patients at risk of overdose. OEND is being expanded to hospitals, clinics, and emergency departments, but little is known about how to offer OEND in these settings effectively. We do not know if this intervention affects patient knowledge or outcomes, and OEND programs have not been well evaluated in clinical practice. This project will generate tools and evidence to extend OEND into clinical care in emergency departments, family practices, opioid substitution clinics and inpatient settings. Scientists will work with design experts and community members to create an OEND toolkit that allows brief patient training with a new naloxone delivery device, and test the toolkit using a randomized trial. We will recruit patients at risk of opioid overdose in the emergency department, family practices, opioid substitution clinics and inpatient settings to be trained using the new toolkit or referred to a conventional community OEND program. Then we will compare their performance in a mock opioid overdose with a manikin. We will work with affected communities to share project results in Canada and abroad. The study will let us examine other effects of OEND including deaths, hospital admissions, and cost. The project will transform care for thousands of Canadians by incorporating overdose prevention into routine clinical care.
Chair in Design for Health
Type: Grant
visual representation, human error and performance, design, human-centric
Investigating, connection, communication and temporality in conversations on death and dying using a design research approach
Type: Grant
(1) End of life; (2) Dialogue; (3) Communications technologies; (4) Co-design
Canada Research Chair in Health Design
Type: Grant
visual representation, human error and performance workshop space, information design development tools, eye tracking,
Canada Research Chair in Health Design
Type: Grant
visual representation, human error and performance workshop space, information design development tools, eye tracking,