Author’s note: This blog post is inspired by the 1924 novel “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin. A dystopian tale set in an undated future, “We” unfolds through the protagonist’s journal. In our story the narrator uses a gender neutral pronoun set, “ze/zir/zem,” and dates are expressed in binary form. You may find this usage and satirical approach a little disruptive to your reading flow at first, but the story of disruption is what we’re all about today.

Ah, spring in Massachusetts. It is snowing again.

As my World Cup Feature surely indicates, I’m rather a big fan of what the non-American world calls “football.” So it was that, yesterday, I had the ESPN feed for the Juventus-Dortmund game up alongside my work.

We are getting accustomed to having the world in the palm of our hands, what with the pocket-sized computer that is also a phone, a camera, and a set of encylopedias that we carry around.

This definition of patient experience comes from The Beryl Institute, a global community of practice and thought leader on improving the patient experience in healthcare.

We’re big fans of Susannah Fox.

Lucky for us, Susannah Fox has been a big fan of the Health Axioms. Not only has she provided insightful feedback, she recently suggested a concept that has now launched as a new Health Axioms card. Here’s how it happened.

What to expect when...

You need a joint replacement. Or your dad had a stroke. Or your six-year-old was just diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. 

Can you expect your care team to provide information that will help you to understand your condition? How will you know if something is wrong and you should seek help? How do you know what to ask your loved one's caregiver? What do other people do in your situation?

It’s well known that patients stay healthier when they are informed. Health literacy is key; if you are not able to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services, you will be ill-equipped to make decisions regarding your own or the health of your loved ones.

Patient education plays an important role in a number of Involution designs. Here are a few resources we’ve found.

AMA Atlas of the Human Body

Illustration: Leslie Laurien, MSMI

The American Medical Association (AMA) has been a leader in addressing health literacy and patient safety and offer a number of health literacy educational tools.

Park Nicollet Hip and Knee Replacement Care Guide

One feature of this guide that we really like is that the first page, even before the Table of Contents, addresses the questions “When do I call my doctor?” and “When do I call 911?”

drawMD from Visible Health

drawMD enables clinicians to simplify and explain medical concepts visually, customizing in real time in coversation with a patient. 

This week’s highlights

On Wednesday we concluded the six-week series on UX Maturity with The AI of UX. If you missed any of these or want to read them through again, see parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Around the Studio: Continuing Efforts in Open Government provides a look at how the City of Asheville, NC has launched an online visual financial tool based on the work of Arlington Visual Budget.

You may remember our work with the Town of Arlington to produce the award-winning Arlington Visual Budget, an open source web application that creates an easier way to communicate complex municipal financial information. The app has been well-recieved here in Arlington and is being explored by other communities as far away as Asheville, North Carolina.

You already know that it’s Friday, right?

So why waste valuable character space and SEO just to state the obvious? Starting now, we’ll still give you a quick run-down of the week’s articles and share a few of our latest web finds. We just won't tell you that it’s Friday.

Last week, we offered a reading list with an eye toward global citizenship.

Today’s titles include classics with a more temporal perspective (both real and imaginary) and a mix of Zen koans and big-data thinking.