Katie Coleman: The Kind of Class that Reshapes Healthcare

Katie Coleman, Founder at OncoLogic Solutions and President of Chromophobe and Oncocytic Tumor Alliance, shared a post on by Shahnoor Shafqat, Clinical Assistant Professor at Arizona State University, adding:

” ‘That’s the kind of class that reshapes healthcare’.
Just a few hours before this course I rearranged my entire presentation and told my husband, “I hope I don’t regret this”. The man, who’s had the exact same pair of tweezers for 15+ years because “they work”, smirked at my antics and constant experimentation before wishing me good luck.

Students and trainees are my favorite groups to speak to. Their passion and curiosity is unmatched. However, I’ve noticed a shift in the past few years across all settings in their eagerness to speak up or ask questions in large groups. I know the spark, curiosity, and engagement is still there because I often receive one on one questions.

I personally thrive in 1:1 conversations as well but I believe there is immense value from group discussions. Listening to the kinds of questions people ask brings new perspectives, gives you common ground to spark a dialogue, and helps you identify who to bounce ideas off of. So I wanted to try something different with this class to elicit more questions from the group.

Afterwards, my husband asked how it went and I shared with him, “that’s the kind of class that reshapes healthcare.” I then proceeded to share with him my excitement about how thoughtful and important the questions they asked were. “It’s essentially day one for them and they’re already thinking about and asking the right questions!”

People often ask me why I’m not bitter and angry at the doctors who missed my stage IV cancer for years. It’s largely because I recognize that it’s a system problem, not a people problem. I advocate, build, and innovate because I believe that while these systems certainly have complex and difficult problems to solve, they’re not impossible problems.

I truly believe classes and courses like these will create the future innovators who will design better systems for the future.

It was an honor and privilege to share with the ASU CX Design course this week and I’m excited see the solutions they’ll go on to build one day.

Kudos to Shahnoor Shafqat and Irbaz Riaz for creating a truly unique course that will help shape the future of healthcare and thank you for the invite to join this week.”

Quoting Shahnoor Shafqat‘s post:

“I’m excited to kick off my course, CX Design in Healthcare, which I’m teaching in collaboration with Irbaz Riaz from the Mayo Clinic at Arizona State University through the Industrial Design ASU Design program.

A huge thank you to Katie Coleman for joining us last evening. Katie is a software engineer, healthcare product designer, and a stage IV cancer survivor. She provided a powerful perspective by reminding us that patients are not just “users” but critical stakeholders in healthcare design.

Her story, captured in her book “Too Young for Cancer“, is both heartbreaking and hopeful. It chronicles her journey through years of misdiagnosis, her life-saving treatment path, and ultimately, her quest for purpose through advocacy and community.

Hearing Katie share her lived experience gave my students a fundamental understanding of why empathy, inclusivity, and human-centered design are at the core of excellent healthcare design. As this class evolves, I am continually reminded that designing for healthcare means designing with patients, not just for them. I am excited to see how our students will carry these lessons into practice!”

More posts featuring Katie Coleman.