Design
Healthcare
Innovation

Research, project and innovation
in the healthcare sector

Research, project and innovation

Design Healthcare Innovation is the result of a research project aimed at encompassing the actions of the project world in the field of contemporary healthcare, a complex system that needs to be explored with an inclusive approach.

More specifically, this platform focuses its scientific interest on the study of bottom-up healthcare innovation processes: it concentrates particularly on those which present a collaborative nature and whose development journey is independent and experimental rather than institutional.

The activities of study and research have been gradually accompanied by a project activity, characterized by its user-centered methodological approach, which is dedicated to the concrete development of product-service solutions.

These project processes feature co-design activities involving researchers, designers, patients, and doctors, who get to explore the opportunities offered by new digital prototyping and fabrication technologies.

In doing so, Design Healthcare Innovation studies, interprets, activates, and narrates the transformations of the materialization processes in the healthcare field, from ideation to market release.

In collaboration with With the support of

The Ecosystem

The Ecosystem* defines and represents the emerging field of development and experimentation of innovative healthcare solutions. It stems from the convergence and interaction of three main fields: people with special needs (Patient & Caregiving System), institutional care and scientific and technological research (Healthcare & Research System), and new enterprises and professionals involved in designing, prototyping, and manufacturing products and services (Making, Manufacturing & New Entrepreneurship System).

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*Ecosystem and Ladder are concepts which have been developed within the MakeToCare research, carried out by the Polifactory team with the support of Fondazione Politecnico and Sanofi; for further information, please refer to the two MakeToCare reports (section Publications)

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The Ladder

The Ladder displays the development process that takes an initial concept and transforms it into a solution accessible to the market and available to the end user.

It makes it possible to analyze the way solutions transition from an individual plan into a collective, shared dimension. After all, ideas are often born as an answer to a personal need, and only after a series of successive steps can they become a comprehensive innovation solution intended for more end users.

The Map

The Map contains a significant catalog of innovative healthcare solutions and products, created by different subjects either individually or alongside others.

Information pertaining to the solutions and their authors is collected, analyzed and revised through continuous research and assessment of precise parameters: innovation level (technological and/or functional), nature and number of subjects involved, degree of maturity and stage of development of the solution.

An ecosystem of projects, initiatives and protagonists of healthcare innovation in Italy

16

Projects

16

Actors

16

Innovative patients

Download our research summary in PDF format.

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Sintesi 1

The Ecosystem

ecosystem_downloads

Sintesi 2

The Ladder

ladder_downloads

Other Projects

Here are some of the main projects and activities developed by the Design Healthcare Innovation team

Pilot project which investigates the physical and motor needs of children diagnosed with cerebral palsy and intends to explore these needs under the principles of proprioception, paying special attention to the translation of movement into sound stimuli.

BODYSOUND

2018-2021

Experimental project intended to encourage designers and makers to work in cooperation with patients and their associations in order to co-design and prototype walking aids that will be transformed into open source products, distributed through online platforms and produced in laboratories such as Fab Labs. This initiative has been developed through collaboration with Sanofi and AIG – Associazione Italiana Glicogenosi within the Distributed Design project, and financed by the Creative Europe program.

Next Steps

2019

Experimental project aimed at creating open source sanitary products developed by designers and makers, establishing a new potential market in line with the value of open production in the field of healthcare, a sector that consistently receives public and private funding.