Santosh Basapur

Santosh Basapur is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Rush Medical Center and Director of Design at Rush University. He also serves as an Adjunct Faculty Lecturer and planning coordinator for human factors and systems design at the Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Institute of Technology. His expertise bridges human-centered design, healthcare systems, and user experience research, with a focus on applying methods from HCI, social sciences, and anthropology to complex healthcare challenges.

Education: PhD in Design from the Institute of Design (ID), MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Human Factors) from SUNY Buffalo, and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Karnatak University.

Research Interests: Santosh focuses on innovative systems design in healthcare, including UX research methodologies, smart technologies integration, and cross-disciplinary healthcare innovation. His work emphasizes human factors engineering and culturally sensitive design approaches to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.

Industry Roles: Director of Project Management at Rush University Medical Center, Founder/Principal of UX Yantra Inc., and former Chief Experience Architect at Vizlore. He has over 19 years of industry experience in UX design, including roles at Motorola Research Labs and Mobility (Google), where he led projects in Smart Media, Connected Home, and Wellness Experiences.

Award Recognition: Notable contributions include patents in media-related systems (2016, 2017) and invited speaking engagements at global conferences like Human-Centered Design (Leuven, 2016) and Service Design Week (Chicago, 2019). His work has been published in venues such as the International Conference on Intelligent Human Systems Integration and BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference.

Grants & Collaborations: Collaborated on an NIH-funded project to improve sickle cell care via design interventions. His cross-disciplinary approach integrates clinical, technical, and design expertise to address systemic healthcare challenges.

Labs/Teams: Associated with the Center for Collaborative Healthcare Design at ID, focused on equitable healthcare solutions through design innovation.