Play, Learn, Teach!
Emerging Leaders in Health Promotion grant program
Addressing the health education gap related to pediatric cardiovascular disease.
With her Play, Learn, Teach! Emerging Leaders in Health Promotion grant project, cardiac surgery resident Dr. Michiko Maruyama, identified a health education gap in the pediatric cardiovascular disease population. She aptly filled that gap with a unique integration of art, design and medicine.
“Cardiovascular disease is on the rise,” says Dr. Maruyama. “And while many health education programs exist to educate the adult population on cardiovascular disease, few programs target the pediatric population.”
As Dr. Maruyama commented in an interview with Metro last summer, “For adults, we often read pamphlets or books with a whole bunch of text in it. But for children, that’s not how they learn … children learn through play.”
And that’s where Dr. Maruyama’s studies in industrial design – she’s currently enrolled in a master’s program at the University of Alberta, focusing on designing health-related toys for children – intersects with her surgical residency at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute.
