Sprint 3 Domain Primer

~1 min · Why I built this

The second half of this course has a more traditional focus — you'll be building a real solution to a real problem. What makes it hard is that the problem is large and genuinely ambiguous. The problem framing skill you've been developing is exactly what you'll need to get started — it's how you find the right entry point into something that doesn't have an obvious one.

— Prof. Sathya

📖 Reading Assignment — No Submission

Read this page and the MDRO document before Week 9 class. Come prepared to discuss.

Why This Matters

1.27M

deaths per year globally from antibiotic-resistant infections

76.8

deaths per 100,000 population in South Asia — the highest regional rate

Your External Stakeholder: Piranavan Selvanandan

Piranavan is a technical consultant who was approached by contacts in Bhutan's healthcare system to help make their MDRO guideline actionable. He has direct knowledge of the clinical context, the constraints healthcare workers face, and what has (and hasn't) been tried before.

Availability: Two in-class sessions via Zoom (Weeks 10 and 11) + email/Slack throughout the sprint. Use his time strategically — ask questions you can't answer from the document alone.

Your Reading Task

Read pages 1-8 carefully. These cover the scope, definitions, and core protocols. Understand what MDRO means, what the guideline is trying to accomplish, and who it's written for.
Skim the rest, looking at structure. Don't memorize — notice how the document is organized. What sections exist? What kinds of decisions does each section support? Where does the document assume clinical knowledge you don't have?
Find one part that's particularly hard for a clinical worker to act on. Not "hard to understand" in general — hard to act on in the moment. A nurse in the middle of a shift. A physician making a decision in 30 seconds. A cleaning staff member following a protocol. What breaks?

📄 Open MDRO Guideline Document →

Context: Bhutan's Healthcare System

Bhutan is a small country (~780,000 people) with a public healthcare system that provides free care. Resources are limited — especially in regional hospitals outside the capital, Thimphu. When reading the guideline, keep in mind:

Role differentiation matters. Physicians, nurses, lab technicians, and cleaning staff have different levels of clinical knowledge. A solution for one may be useless for another.
Technology access varies. Urban hospitals may have computers at nursing stations. Rural facilities may not. Assume nothing about device access or connectivity.
Clinical accuracy is not optional. Unlike Sprint 2 where your partner could tell you if something was wrong, clinical staff may follow what your tool says. Getting it wrong has real consequences.

Coming to Week 9 Class

Week 9 is the Sprint 3 launch. We'll do a guided retrospective on the five foundational claims, review aggregate class data, introduce the Bhutan MDRO problem, and run a problem pitch round where each student stakes their territory.

Pre-class task: Be ready to say in one sentence: "The part of this guideline that's hardest to act on is _____ because _____." That's your entry point for the pitch round.