Medical imaging and guiding interactions

Medical imaging and guiding interactions – What to see and how to interact?

Rebekka’s research deals with the different methods of producing and using medical images within the field of neurosurgery. During her field research at the Department of Neurosurgery at Charité University Hospital Berlin she was able to closely observe the needs of users who employ medical images and related software applications. Her observations lead to a profound understanding of the interaction context. The materials of the filed research (notes, photos, sketches) are currently being transformed visually supplemented by verbal descriptions.
For the joint teaching project Iconic Turn – How Images Govern our Actions Rebekka poses the question of how to bridge the gap between cognitive understanding of images, related software applications, and the patient’s body. A set of hands-on exercises aim at opening the students’ minds to improve their interaction capabilities for residency (link for poster publication).
In addition, Rebekka explores ways of sharing the elements of design research, namely the results of the observation. How could those insights by designers be shared with a broader audience for a fundamental improvement in future surgical software tools?

Rebekka Lauer has a master’s degree in product design with a focus on interaction design from the Weißensee School of Art and Design, Berlin. In 2013, she joined the Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung. An interdisciplinary Laboratory, located at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin as a research associate. Her research challenges the gap between the analogue and the digital work environments: how do workplaces, tools, and routines shape non-technological practices? How do they need to be reflected in technological workspaces and tools?