MAKERHEALTH

Project Overview

In the Vlaio MakerHealth project we explore - together with patients, healthcare professionals (of hospitals, elderly care and multifunctional centers), designers and healthcare entrepreneurs - how stakeholders in healthcare can become a maker of healthcare solutions that can contribute to the independence of patients or support of healthcare professionals. This methodology is driven by open user innovation. The general objective of this project is to make frugal innovation accessible with and for healthcare organizations through medical fablab techniques. On the one hand we want to facilitate healthcare professionals to rapidly create 'low tech high impact' healthcare prototypes and test this within their own organization. On the other hand we want to support the efficient communication between healthcare organizations and professional design agencies to bring healthcare prototypes towards healthcare innovation in a follow-up trajectory. To do this we will map the different forms of cooperation. This project is conducted by design for (every)one (D4E1). D4E1 is an interdisciplinary research group and a experiential education methodology that focuses on open-ended design principles within the context of design for wellbeing.

Key Objectives

1. Make frugal innovation accessible with and for healthcare organizations through medical fablab techniques
2. Facilitate healthcare professionals to rapidly create 'low tech high impact' healthcare prototypes
3. Enable testing of prototypes within healthcare organizations
4. Support efficient communication between healthcare organizations and professional design agencies
5. Map different forms of cooperation between stakeholders in healthcare innovation
6. Enable patients and healthcare professionals to become makers of healthcare solutions