Co-designing for the NHS: the development of sustainable theatre garments
Paul Rodgers1, Euan Winton2, Lewis Urquhart1, Jonathan O'Reilly3, Carole Anderson3
1University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom; 2Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom; 3NHS Scotland, Golden Jubilee, United Kingdom
NHS Scotland, one of the keystone healthcare providers in the UK, have recently set a wide variety of sustainability targets in an effort to mitigate waste and the intensive energy demands of healthcare. Medical garment production, management and design is an area in which design researchers can explore and offer solutions. This paper presents a series of co-design explorations to examine design alternatives to single-use theatre caps, the majority of which are currently disposed of routinely. Using a series of probes, major insights into how theatre cap design may be improved is presented.
Surveying factors that influence healthcare personnel in the transition to reusable surgical gowns
Charlotte Harding, Ingrid Moons, Regan Watts, Gunter De Win, Els Du Bois
University of Antwerp, Belgium
This study surveyed 190 healthcare professionals to examine attitudes towards reusable surgical gowns, aiming to reduce medical waste. Comfort (scoring 5.32 out of 7) and misconceptions about gowns serving as personal protective equipment (87% hold this belief) are crucial influencers. External motivators, trust, emotions, and workload also impact perceptions. The study recommends enhancing reusable gown design for comfort, multifunctionality, and hygiene trust. It calls for communication strategies to normalise reusables in healthcare and urges a transition to sustainable practices.
Emotional design of medical devices: exoskeletons and post-stroke recovery devices
Frederik Kiersgaard Lund, Luke Edward Eric Feast, Milo Marsfeldt Skovfoged, Hendrik Knoche, Mostafa Mohammadi, Lotte N. S. Andreasen Struijk, Linda Nhu Laursen
Aalborg University, Denmark
The paper explores the integration of emotional design elements in the development of medical devices to enhance user acceptance and adherence. It emphasizes the importance of a user-centered approach, acknowledging both functional and emotional needs. The study compares two cases within healthcare design, highlighting the impact of emotional design on users' perception of medical devices. Despite the different stages of development in the two cases, both employed a higher level of refflective design, aiming to create a lasting impact on users' identity using the products.
Designing healthcare systems for earlier diagnosis and prevention of dementia
Coco Newton1,2, Jiwon Jung1,3, Maaike S. Kleinsmann1,4, P. John Clarkson1,2
1Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands; 2University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; 3Erasmus University Medical Center, The Netherlands; 4Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands
Recent clinical trials have successfully slowed Alzheimer’s disease dementia progression, but only in early-stage patients. Society must therefore shift to early diagnosis. By framing this is as an engineering design challenge, we argue that a systems approach will identify solutions by providing the means to validate dementia medical technologies from multiple levels and perspectives: society, government, public health, healthcare, and patient ecosystems. We show that new data-enabled design methods can facilitate these different granularities of thinking and outline the need for designers.
Designing positive emotional experiences of wearable medical technology for type 1 diabetes
Ryan Charles Williams, Yonghun Lim
Bournemouth University, United Kingdom
With the current strain on the healthcare service, wearable technology presents a solution. However, there is a lack of adoption from user groups due to a focus on clinical and financial factors. This study explores the implementation of positive design in medicine, outlining contributing factors to positive emotional experiences. Using a qualitative methodology in the form of semi-structured interviews with users and experts, a construct was defined consisting of five key psychological needs, including control, stimulation, competence, social factors, and purpose & growth.
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