Interested in how design improves life? Check out these three articles to get a handle on how human-centered design could rock healthcare.
1. “Designing Social Networks for Young Behavorial Healthcare Patients”
I love this. At Healthcare Design Magazine, how inviting, home-like interiors and shared creative spaces meet teens’ developmental needs at substance-abuse facilities.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
2. “Healthcare Is Broken. And This Designer Thinks She Can Fix It”
Want to know the basics of why design and healthcare are in the same sentence in the first place? Read this profile of IDEO Active Health Lead Gretchen Wustrack at Wired.
Wustrack on how she realized the two go hand-in-hand:
I had emergency back surgery. I’d gone from a very active, healthy, health-conscious person to all of a sudden in the hospital, [as a] patient with no understanding. I was not empowered. All of a sudden you’re just totally vulnerable no matter how educated you are. It was such a scary, uncertain time. In a lot of ways you just lose your dignity because you’re not in control. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to recover. There was a chance I wouldn’t. That was scary. Living and working through that experience as a designer made me commit to that space all the more because there’s just so much need for helping patients and physicians.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
3. “The AIA Announces National Healthcare Design Awards Winners”
Okay. This is not so much an article as it is a very specific type of design porn: great hospital architecture. This slideshow features 12 hospitals that are functional, good-looking and either sustainable, socially responsible or integrated into urban environments.
4. “Medical Device Manufacturers, Be Prepared to Innovate”
Whether its eating utensils made for patients with arthritis or health monitoring devices turned video games, the medtech industry also is becoming more design-centered. Bio-connectivity is one more big reason the industry needs to pay attention to human-centered design.
Favorite quote from this article:
World class innovators look out at the future and see a trend, not a threat. They see an opportunity.
~Jim Carroll, futurist
5. “6 Challenges (and Opportunities) for Healthcare Design”
Hint: “Better, faster, cheaper” is a major theme.
