Designing Care: Beyond Treatment, Toward Inclusion

Medical treatment often focuses on symptom suppression. But what about design?

In developing a biodegradable therapeutic patch, I began thinking not only about efficacy but about inclusivity. If medical materials are visible, how do they interact with skin tone? How do adhesives behave on inflamed tissue? What does healing look like across different bodies?

Care is not just pharmacological. It is structural.

Inclusive biomedical design means asking: who is this for? Whose skin was tested? Whose visibility was considered?

I am drawn to translational approaches—where laboratory research meets lived experience. Biology provides the mechanism. Design shapes the interaction. Inclusion determines impact.

Healing is not only chemical. It is contextual.