Human-centered design is about understanding human needs and how design can respond to these needs. With its systemic humane approach and creativity, human-centered design can play an essential role in dealing with today's care challenges. 'Design’ refers to both the process of designing and the outcome of that process, which includes physical products, services, procedures, strategies, and policies. In this paper, we address the three key characteristics of human-centered design, focusing on its implementation in healthcare: (1) developing an understanding of people and their needs; (2) engaging stakeholders from early on and throughout the design process; (3) adopting a systems approach by systematically addressing interactions between the micro, meso and macro-levels of sociotechnical care systems, and the transition from individual interests to collective interests.

Background: One of the main ergonomic problems during surgical procedures is the surgeonÕs awkward body posture, often accompanied by repetitive movements of the upper extremities, increased muscle activity, and prolonged static head and back postures. In addition, surgeons perform surgery so concentrated that they tend to neglect their posture. These observations suggest the advantage of supporting the surgeonÕs body during surgical procedures. This study aimed to design a body support and to test its potential. Methods: The optimum working condition for a surgeon is a compromise between the spine and arm positions and the level of effort and fatigue experienced performing a procedure. The design vision of the Medisign group has led to the development of an ergonomic body support for surgeons that is suitable for use during both open and minimally invasive procedures. The feasibility of the newly designed ergonomic body support was assessed during seven surgical procedures. Electromyography (EMG) was performed for back and leg muscles using the body support in an experimental setting. Results: Six of seven participating surgeons indicated that the body support was comfortable, safe, and simple to use. The EMG results show that supporting the body is effective in reducing muscle activity. The average reduction using chest support was 44% for the erector spinae muscle, 20% for the semitendinosus muscle, and 74% for the gastrocnemius muscle. The average muscle reduction using semistanding support was 5% for the erector spinae, 12% for the semitendinosus muscle, and for 50% for the gastrocnemius muscle. Conclusion:The results of this study imply that supporting the body is an effective way to reduce muscle activity, which over the long term may reduce physical problems and discomfort. Additionally, the product supports the surgeon in his natural posture during both open and minimally invasive procedures and can easily be adapted to the current layout of the operating theater.

In this article, we focus on the design method of mapping the patient journey in order to support the inclusion of the patient perspective into care service innovations. Increasingly, designers in health use the patient journey approach, however, its method is relatively poorly documented. To ground the activities of the patient journey method, we conducted an in-depth case study of integrated service design with impact on improved patient satisfaction the case of gastrointestinal diagnose service with video endoscopy technology. The results revealed four distinct activities of the patient journey method: (1) Analyse the care service system; (2) Experience the journey yourself, observe and sketch it; (3) Co-design the patient journey: craft the journey toolkit, interview and synthesize; (4) Evaluate the patient journey for integrated service design.

Co-designing with people with dementia (PwD) can uncover their needs and preferences, which have been often overlooked. It is difficult for PwD to understand designers and express themselves in a conventional co-design session. This study aims to evaluate the effects of involving PwD in design research on both PwD and the design process; to identify the trends of involving PwD in design research; to extract tools, recommendations, and limitations of involving PwD from reviewed studies to update the recommendations on how to co-design with PwD. A scoping review was carried out within the electronic databases PubMed and Scopus, and eight research questions were proposed, in order to gain specific knowledge on the involvement of PwD in design research. Twenty-six studies met the inclusion criteria, and 32 sessions were evaluated. Beneficial effects on both PwD and the design process were reported. The number of studies involving PwD in the moderate and severe stages of dementia has increased. Based on the review, an update of the existing tools and recommendations for codesigning with PwD is provided and a list of limitations of involving PwD is presented. The review shows that involving PwD in design research is beneficial for both the PwD and the design process, and there is a shift towards involving people who are in the moderate and severe stages of dementia. The authors propose that multidisciplinary meetings and case studies should be carried out to evaluate and refine the list of tools and recommendations as well as the list of limitations generated in this review.