For whatever reason (it must be government provided health care) the United Kingdom has taken the lead in injecting design thinking into health care delivery.
Waaaaaayy back in 2004 the Design Council in the United Kingdom started a project called RED to address social and economic problems through innovation led by design. Open Health is RED’s solution to modernizing the National Health Service and aligning its service offerings with the patient needs:
By 2010, one in ten of us will have diabetes. By 2030, the incidence of chronic disease in over 65s will more than double. Current NHS spending on diabetes alone stands at £10 million every day. And yet about 90% of healthcare takes place in the home.
Chronic disease and conditions related to an unhealthy lifestyle have reached epidemic proportions and are rising still. This presents a momentous challenge for our current healthcare system.
Improving existing services is not the answer. Preventative approaches to health mean radical changes in our individual lifestyles – eating well, exercising more, self-managing chronic conditions. These changes can’t be delivered through hospitals and GPs surgeries alone. We need to design new types of services that tap into people’s motivations and relate to their daily lives.
Read the entire RED pdf report for the specifics.
Hi, I'm Drew Weilage. 