About the program

The Bezalel Industrial Design Masters program is a two-year program educating outstanding designers and creators to take on leading roles in an ever-changing world.
The program offers three tracks: Design Management and Innovation, Experimental Design (About Design), and Design and Technology, in which the students gain tools, knowledge, and creative study. The program is based on the premise that designers are agents of change facilitating interdisciplinary connections, as well as new perspectives and original solutions to current issues. The program creates opportunities for experiencing work in various fields: hi-tech and industry, the curatorial and art world, the academic and research world, the third sector, and local authorities - as well as in the framework of international cooperations with leading academies.

The program exposes the students to the deeper meanings of central processes currently taking place in the world. It allows them to translate processes of innovation and design thinking into a distinct personal language while integrating processes related to product design and new services in a competitive dynamic world. In the course of their studies, the students build their ability to integrate into multidisciplinary teams and develop processes. In addition, the students acquire tools to act in a global environment, connect with interested parties, and balance different requirements. These skills will be the central foundation in the students’ ability to find their place and to succeed in the Israeli and global markets.

The program opened in 2003 and our graduates have taken positions in the industry and design fields: as innovation team managers in local authorities and the Air Force, hi-tech and startups product designers, UI/UX designers in global companies such as Microsoft, HP, Intel, lab managers in the Weizmann Institute and Ort education network, lecturers in design academies, and curators, creators, and entrepreneurs. Our team of lecturers includes designers and leading curators, marketing experts, and researchers with vast knowledge in strategy management, product management, and design, service management, interaction, and game design, programming, storytelling, critical thinking, curation, and writing.

Talking about Health: Parents as Partners in the Therapeutic Discourse

Sohad Rahman

Design Management and Innovation track

Mentor —

Michal Eitan

sohad rahman

My project focuses on the communication between parents to chronically ill children and the medical staff treating them in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. The children hospitalized at the unit are also treated in other settings in the community and at home. Throughout their life, they need complex treatment which requires close supervision around the clock, dependence on medical instruments and health services, as well as special procedures.

As their primary caregivers, the parents of chronically ill children manage their treatment vis-à-vis the health system and are responsible for complex medical procedures such as intravenous and intestinal feeding and medicinal regimes. For these parents, life is akin to a medical marathon, running through the various treatments.

I studied the reasons for the parents’ reported helplessness, low effectiveness, loss of control and anger. I found that the parents are interested in becoming partners in the treatment process and in bringing the unique expertise they have acquired by experience to bear. Another finding arising from my study was the focus of the medical teams on managing the child’s disease and physical condition. Despite the parents’ importance in the treatment, today we lack the tools for coping with their distress. Studies show that collaboration with the parents may improve the effectiveness of treatment.

The proposed solution is a treatment roadmap, a tool for sharing information and knowledge between the medical team and parents. This map organizes hierarchically important pieces of information and promotes cooperation in the treatment process and sharing the responsibility for it between the staff and parents. The map will enable the parents to express their opinion, share important information with the medical team, create a joint discourse and enable a more effective treatment.

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Sohad Rahman

I am a teacher in an experimental special education school active within the Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem, where I promote projects related to the experience of the hospitalized children and their families, including experience design. My credo is combining technology and innovation in learning processes. My challenges have intensified while leading the establishment of a school branch in the hospital’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Part of my job is to adapt the teaching to bedridden children who are connected to tubes, and at the same time collaborate with the medical staff. To do so, I promote the implementation of new visual aids and tools at the unit, and take part in developing models and booklets to prepare children for medical procedures.