Driven by networked Electronic Health Record systems, Artificial Intelligence, real-time data from wearable devices with an overlay of invisible user interfaces and improved analytics, Health 4.0 is changing the healthcare industry. The focus on collaboration, coherence, and convergence that will make healthcare more predictive and personalised. Furthermore, Health 4.0 realises the value of data more consistently and effectively. It can pinpoint areas of improvement and enable more informed decisions. What it also does is help move the entire healthcare industry from a system that is reactive and focused on fee-for-service to a system that is value-based, which measures outcomes and ensures proactive prevention.In this paper, the authors will first explore the realm of the emerging area of Health 4.0 and identify its opportunities and challenges. This includes understanding the relevant base technologies as well as the design principles for the realization of smart healthcare product, systems and product-service-systems of the future. Following on from there, the authors focus on the role of design in the specific context of healthcare.

The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in facilitating the real-time processing of data is revolutionising the future of healthcare through mobile diagnostics, remote monitoring devices, and wearable technology products. The rise in digital wearables for remote healthcare is evolving at an increasing pace towards patient-centred and personalised care with connected patients. This transformation is creating new opportunities for designers to increase patients' participation and sustain their engagement in remote healthcare. In this paper, the authors have investigated the role of gender in aesthetic design in the context of digital health wearables to enhance user engagement and interaction. The investigations were conducted through participatory design sessions and showed a constructive relationship between aesthetic preferences and understanding the influence of gender as a means of facilitating user engagement with digital health wearables. This paper presents a novel user response model that leads to suggestions for future work, including research in the areas of gender awareness in aesthetics to move beyond traditional, stereotypical, and pre-identified gendered characteristics related to femininity and masculinity. The findings conclude with a path forwards for design research to promote gender awareness in aesthetic design for the realisation of healthcare wearables of the future.

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The research outlined in this paper investigated the sun protection behaviour in young men age 18 to 24. Firstly, field observations were conducted on the beach where the sun protection behaviour occurs. The findings highlighted the importance of gender linked with low levels of sun protection behaviour in young men. This informed the next study through participatory design sessions using a simulated beach environment. The results showed design opportunities with taking an account of gender in sun protection behaviour which opens new avenues where design has a key role in health promotion.

A growing ageing population and the rise in the number of people living with long-term conditions lead to increasing demand for resources to support healthcare in a pandemic impacted world. Medication self-management or adherence remains a major challenge that creates additional pressure on the global healthcare system. Poor medication management puts the patients at risk of poor health outcomes, increased mortality and burden on the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. In this paper, the authors provide an overview of medication adherence and discuss its underlying challenges and emerging opportunities in the smart packaging sector. This includes exploring the relevant challenges for older people’s medication self-management through interviews with medical experts. Finally, conclusions and an outlook are presented towards future opportunities for personalized product-service systems of the future.