C E O N E W S L E T T E R M AY 2 0 1 8

BON KU, MD, FCPP

Fel low since 2018

By Jon Goff, Associate Director of Fellowship Relations

W hen did you become a Fellow and what initially

interested you about joining the College?

I just became a Fellow this spring and I have been in-spired by the Mutter Museum, Historical Medical Li-brary, and the members of the College. It’s a thrill to become a part of this diverse and rich community.

You are the Director of JeffDESIGN, a first-of-its-

kind program in a U.S. medical school that aims to

use design thinking to improve, among other things,

healthcare systems, public spaces, and medical

devices. Why do you think physician voices have

been largely absent from these kinds of discussions

in the past?

Although Medicine has a long tradition of physicians who are creative problem solvers, most of us don’t think really think that doctoring is a creative field. I believe that creativity is the most underappreciated skill in medicine. Design thinking has been increas-ingly embraced as an approach to drive innovation in business and as a creative strategy to solve complex problems. I have seen this approach open our creative minds to tackle some of the toughest challenges in healthcare.

fellow S P O T L I G H T :

C E O N E W S L E T T E R M AY 2 0 1 8

The projects that have come of out of JeffDESIGN have included attempts to monitor children’s play to redesign playgrounds and libraries; creating assistive devices for a tetraplegic teenager; and using an Airstream trailer to provide community medical services. How do see you these small interventions adding up to real system change?

Although Philadelphia has world-class medical schools and health care institutions, we remain the largest un-healthiest city in the country. We don’t make people healthier only within the walls of the a hospital or clin-ic. In order to make real change in our communities, clinicians need to care not only for the patient but for the communities where they live. This summer we are excited to launch a project called CoLab Philadelphia to improve the health of people living in the Kensing-ton section of Philadelphia. Through a repurposed Airstream trailer and partnering with local non-profit organizations and designers, we will provide services and activities for residents in Kensington. This might look like cleaning a park of used needles and syringes so children can play safely or providing fresh fruits and vegetables in food deserts.

One thing that shouldn’t be overlooked when discussing your work at JeffDESIGN is the fact that you are an ER Doctor. What is it about the Emergency Room environment that motivates you?

The ER provides me with a window into the health of my city and even gives me a sense of the “vital signs” of a community. Working in an ER, I observed that pa-tients from specific geographic locations in the city had greater complications of chronic diseases or suf-fered more from violent crimes. The research shows that there can be a 20-year gap in life expectancy de-pending upon which zip code you live. To me this gap represents the major challenge of Philadelphia and motivates me to think about how we can design com-munities to be healthier.

Tell us about one of your favorite items in the College’s Historical Medical Library or the Mütter Museum.

I’m a huge fan of old anatomy textbooks. They are so beautifully designed and illustrated. I can spend hours looking through anatomy books which are really works of art. Our modern anatomy books pale in comparison.

Surgical Anatomy by Joseph Maclise was first

published 1851. An edition published in London

included 35 plates lithographed by Michael

and Nicholas, while the edition presented here,

published in Philadelphia, includes 68 plates

lithographed by T. Sinclair’s Lith. from Maclise’s

especially artistic drawings. (right)