Doctor in health and technology
(candidate)
I am a behavioral designer. I hold a technical degree in Programming, a Bs Sc in Psychology/Social Sciences, a Ms Sc in Health Sciences and I am doctoral candidate in Health and Technology from University of California, Berkeley.
Developing solutions for the public, private and social sectors is at the center of what I do. By partnering with organizations all over the world I aim to promote healthier lifestyles in our society. Among the goals I have worked on are: to fight informational asymmetry in the food market, the development of governmental health labeling for consumer products, the design of a food environments in the catering industry to improve people's dietary intake and exploring the benefits of using virtual reality to prevent childhood obesity.
Previous work has been in the area of food environment and its influence in lifestyles; the psychological strategies of lucky losers (people who have lost more than 30 lb and kept them off permanently); developing labeling of health-related products; evaluating health-care programs; performing epidemiological nutrition research, and a few others. All this has provided me with a well-rounded understanding of why we must design with rigor. Unlike other areas, health design has a direct impact in the quality and length of our lives.
Mu doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, were devoted to the study of design methods and its application to develop more effective solutions to our health problems. I focused on three aspects. First, on studying outstanding human beings in order to get insights on how they achieve such great results. Second, in using such insights to design solutions for the rest of the population. Third, in integrating design sciences methods in the field of behavioral sciences. This give yield to an hybrid field that some have touted as "behavioral design".
As scientist, I believe that a true integration of design methods with health sciences could lead to a serious improvement in the health of the population. But to do so, we need to realize that we are no longer doing natural sciences, as Herbert Simon said, we are doing a "science of the artificial" and we are becoming designers.
Currently I am exploring the solution space for diabetes remission (T2DM). Other than with bariatric surgery, it used to be a very rare phenomena -in the order of a few cases per 1000 persona/years-. After a scientific definition of diabetes remission was agreed upon in 2009, big leaps in our understanding of it it have been achieved. Recent research has reported remission rates of 10% up to 50%. The reports of those who have achieved it talk about struggle, but also of hope and resilence. By using the right methodologies, we can accelerate the advent of a massive, scalable diabetes remission protocol.
Papers on the dissertation work
Strategies associated with long-term weight loss: findings from positive outliers
Strategies associated with long-term diabetes remission: findings from the international diabetes remission registry
The Metabolic Intervention Canvas: a method to translate experimental findings into health promotion interventions
Reducing uncertainty during the design of innovative programs and policies: the iPRECEDE model
Development of an intervention for diabetes remission.
scholar.berkeley.edu/vevilla
www.linkedin.com/in/vevilla
Developing solutions for the public, private and social sectors is at the center of what I do. By partnering with organizations all over the world I aim to promote healthier lifestyles in our society. Among the goals I have worked on are: to fight informational asymmetry in the food market, the development of governmental health labeling for consumer products, the design of a food environments in the catering industry to improve people's dietary intake and exploring the benefits of using virtual reality to prevent childhood obesity.
Previous work has been in the area of food environment and its influence in lifestyles; the psychological strategies of lucky losers (people who have lost more than 30 lb and kept them off permanently); developing labeling of health-related products; evaluating health-care programs; performing epidemiological nutrition research, and a few others. All this has provided me with a well-rounded understanding of why we must design with rigor. Unlike other areas, health design has a direct impact in the quality and length of our lives.
Mu doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, were devoted to the study of design methods and its application to develop more effective solutions to our health problems. I focused on three aspects. First, on studying outstanding human beings in order to get insights on how they achieve such great results. Second, in using such insights to design solutions for the rest of the population. Third, in integrating design sciences methods in the field of behavioral sciences. This give yield to an hybrid field that some have touted as "behavioral design".
As scientist, I believe that a true integration of design methods with health sciences could lead to a serious improvement in the health of the population. But to do so, we need to realize that we are no longer doing natural sciences, as Herbert Simon said, we are doing a "science of the artificial" and we are becoming designers.
Currently I am exploring the solution space for diabetes remission (T2DM). Other than with bariatric surgery, it used to be a very rare phenomena -in the order of a few cases per 1000 persona/years-. After a scientific definition of diabetes remission was agreed upon in 2009, big leaps in our understanding of it it have been achieved. Recent research has reported remission rates of 10% up to 50%. The reports of those who have achieved it talk about struggle, but also of hope and resilence. By using the right methodologies, we can accelerate the advent of a massive, scalable diabetes remission protocol.
Papers on the dissertation work
Strategies associated with long-term weight loss: findings from positive outliers
Strategies associated with long-term diabetes remission: findings from the international diabetes remission registry
The Metabolic Intervention Canvas: a method to translate experimental findings into health promotion interventions
Reducing uncertainty during the design of innovative programs and policies: the iPRECEDE model
Development of an intervention for diabetes remission.
scholar.berkeley.edu/vevilla
www.linkedin.com/in/vevilla
" Let other people do the easy things, because if you go after the easy tasks you have lots of competitors. If you stick with the difficult ones, you have very few." Ray M. Dolby