Health Care Design: Current and Potential Research and Development

Abstract

Design and Health Care Reflecting on design in the context of medicine and health care is relatively new. The research project carried out by Bruce Archer in the early 1960s, which eventually led to the “King’s Fund Bed”—a prototype of all modern hospital beds—counts among the first instances of design in medicine. In the meantime, in a wide array of more or less established situations in medical practice, design has made an important difference; this area of specialization is now known as medical design.1 In industrial design, many medical aids and devices have been developed for patients, doctors, and nursing staff, or even as capital goods for hospitals and doctors’ practices. The design of clinics and rehabilitation centers—both their architectural and interior design—makes various contributions to improvements in therapy and care processes. E-Health is an umbrella term for concepts ranging from telediagnostics, telemonitoring, and e-counseling to efforts to form a network for the health care system. These concepts involve Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-supported system design, which is also connected to the desire to digitalize patient data allow multiple points of access for several health care sectors.2 Furthermore, service design is trying to use the methods of empirical social research to develop concepts aimed at the optimization or new development of medical treatment or care processes. Neologisms, such as “co-design” or “participatory health care design” express that the clients’ experiences and patient participation are taking on greater meaning.