The FuturePractice Team | NYU Langone Health

FuturePractice The FuturePractice Team

The FuturePractice Team

We are an innovation lab at NYU Langone Health working to develop creative solutions that optimize the care experience for staff, clinicians, and the people we serve. With a diverse range of skills and expertise, our team is committed to developing ideas that are human, equitable, and effective.

We believe that collaboration and communication are the keys to our success, and we work closely with each other and our partners to improve the quality of care at NYU Langone. Get to know our talented team and learn more about their experience and contributions to our projects.

Our People

Dr. Devin Mann

Devin Mann, MD

Director, FuturePractice
Director, SoDEC (section of digitally enabled care)
Director, HiBRID (healthcare innovation bridging research, informatics, and design) Lab
Strategic Director of Digital Health Innovation, MCIT
Professor, Department of Population Health and Medicine

Dr. Mann leads a hybrid program of research and operational innovation focused on enhancing healthcare delivery using novel technologies. His research combines the disciplines of informatics, behavioral medicine, human–computer interactions, mobile health, and primary care in service of a learning health system and the delivery of effective healthcare. He is passionate about fostering creativity and using that energy to transform healthcare.

KP Tacconi

KP Tacconi

Senior Innovation Manager

KP manages the FuturePractice innovation team. She is a product strategist who enjoys bridging the gap between innovation concepts and product delivery. Previously, she led product management for a startup in the field of elderly care and spearheaded concepting and development of a wellbeing app at a weight loss company. Outside of work. she enjoys writing poetry, practicing meditation, and attending modern dance performances. KP has a master’s degree in innovation management from Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design and a bachelor’s degree in communication and journalism from Wake Forest University.

Steven Robinson

Steven Robinson

Innovation Manager

Steve Robinson is a human-centered designer with over 15 years of experience. Before joining NYU Langone Health, he co-founded two New York City–based startups, designed for MTV Networks, and consulted for many other clients. He has a background in fine art, with an MFA from the Yale School of Art and a BFA from Cornell University. He has shown his artworks in the United States and in Europe. Raised in Montana, he can still speak slowly after four cups of coffee.

Sarah Sharif

Sarah Sharif

Innovation Manager

Sharif brings a decade of experience innovating business services and delivering seven-figure product concepts. She has a passion for sharing the future of healthcare from 2030 to 2100. With sought-after expertise in strategic foresight and design thinking, she has managed $1M+ projects for clients. Sharif was recognized as a top 100 innovator by OBO, awarded a bronze by UN SDSN for her climate hackathon project Capsule, and won a Vogue Business competition for biocouture futures. She has spoken at Oxford University, SXSW, Dubai Future Forum. and Innovate South. Sharif holds degrees from University of California, Davis and St. Edward’s, along with certificates from Harvard, HEC Paris, and Copenhagen Business School.

Veronica Alfaro Arias

Veronica Alfaro Arias

Innovation Manager

Veronica works at the intersection between accessibility and healthcare through the fields of human-centered design, user experience/user interface (UX/UI) design, and information visualization. Her recent work focuses on the design of frameworks for developing customizable assistive technologies for people with disabilities, reimagining healthcare, and the use of technology to improve the provider–patient relationship. She is passionate about the use of technology and design for social good.

Son Luu

Son Luu

Innovation Manager

Son is a multidisciplinary experience design technologist and human–computer interaction (HCI) researcher with a background in business analytics and operations management. He is also a design researcher and prototyper at NYU Langone’s FuturePractice, focusing on mixed user research methodologies while designing innovative solutions to inspire a better future of healthcare delivery and experience.

Vasu Kuram

Vasu Kuram

Innovation Analyst

Vasu, a service designer and researcher on the team, comes from a previous career in bioinformatics and data science. He met the team through a grad student project at NYU Tandon, and came on full time to conduct on-site research, develop analysis tools, and prototype future visions. Vasu is passionate about bringing systems thinking, sustainability, and equity to his work in healthcare.

Katharine Lawrence

Katharine Lawrence

Clinical Consultant

Dr. Lawrence completed her postdoctoral fellowship in healthcare science delivery within the Population Health Science Scholars Program in May 2021. She completed her residency in internal medicine and primary care at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Before Dr. Lawrence joined the HiBRID Lab. her research focused on social determinants of health and social justice, as well as on quality improvement in both patient safety and outcomes and provider wellness and resilience. Her current interests are in the realm of digital innovations in healthcare, with the goals of improving patient–physician relationships, provider workflows, and physician resilience in the era of digital medicine.

Javier Gonzalez

Javier Gonzalez

Senior Engineer

Javier earned his bachelor of science in computer and automatic control systems from the School of Electrical Engineering at Central University of Las Villas in Santa Clara, Cuba. Previously, Javier worked in the fintech, education. digital media, and health tech industries as a software engineer and architect, focusing on designing highly scalable and resilient systems. He is passionate about technology and a believer in education as a driver of software quality and innovation.

April Chien

April Chien

UX Designer

April, a user experience designer on the FuturePractice team, is working to envision the future of healthcare. She has a background in interaction design. cognitive science, and digital media studies, with a master of fine arts from the School of Visual Arts and a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. In her free time she enjoys watching movies, making art, and visiting museums.

Ari Coello

Ari Coello

Experience Designer

Ariel is an industrial designer, researcher, and strategist. His work spans across healthcare, civic infrastructure, education, and retail and consumer products. Before joining NYU Langone. Ariel consulted with personal care startups like Quip and Supergoop. He is passionate about exploring spatial design solutions that can create more-equitable futures and inclusive care models. Ariel holds a bachelor of science in industrial design from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also has a certificate in human-centered healthcare from Parsons School of Design.

Our Collaborators

FuturePractice is one of the many innovation hubs at NYU Langone, where we actively collaborate with partners both within NYU and the healthcare community.

Healthcare Innovation Bridging Research, Informatics, and Design Lab

The Healthcare Innovation Bridging Research, Informatics, and Design Lab (HiBRID) is an informatics research group in the Division of Healthcare Delivery Science in the Department of Population Health. Like FuturePractice, HiBRID Lab is under the leadership of Devin Mann, MD.

NYU Tandon School of Engineering

FuturePractice works to foster cross-disciplinary collaborations and events with faculty and research groups at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, such as the Digital Health Workgroup, Oded Nov, PhD, and Batia Wiesenfeld, PhD.

The FuturePractice team is part of the Department of Health Informatics within Medical Center Information Technology (MCIT), which supports our digital health innovation work.

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Department of Health Informatics

The MCIT Department of Health Informatics is a community of clinicians, researchers, educators, informaticists. and administrators committed to nationally recognized, coordinated efforts enabling world-class, highest-quality, equitable care, education, research and innovations grounded in the application of health informatics and digital health tools.

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MCIT

MCIT serves as the institution’s clinical information technology and operational backbone. It mobilizes the power of clinical systems, data, and technologies to enable practice transformation and improve healthcare by fostering collaboration and applying informatics principles.

Interns

Email us for more information about internship opportunities.