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Make It Better exhibition panorama

Make It Better at the Hunterian Museum
The Make It Better exhibition, showcasing work from the DOME (Designing Out Medical Error) project, was set against the backdrop of historic surgical innovations at the Royal College of Surgeons Hunterian Museum.

Cutting-edge outputs from research into the role design can play in improving patient safety was therefore displayed in close proximity to the leather examining coach used by Joseph Lister (1827-1912), pioneer of safer and cleaner hospitals. This is the centenary year of Lister's death.

President of the Royal College of Surgeons Norman Williams, Professor Charles Vincent of Imperial College London, and Paul Thompson, the Rector of the Royal College of Art, all spoke at the opening of the Make It Better exhibition.

The DOME designs include:

  • a vital signs trolley that is easier to clean - with no tangled cables, and data automatically displayed on screen - so no plotting, reading or transcription errors
  • a new graphic symbol and communication campaign to promote hand hygiene around the bed space
  • a new concept in drug packaging to engage patients more actively in taking their own medication
  • the environmental design of an exemplar handover room to facilitate a higher quality staff handover
  • and an entirely new furniture concept, the CareCentre, that sits at the foot of the bed - an all-in-one unit containing the equipment needed for patient care at the bedside that is already in production in partnership with UK manufacturer Bristol Maid, a leading supplier to the NHS.

RCA Rector Paul Thompson told the audience at the Hunterian Museum: 'The world's greatest architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said that surgeons can bury their mistakes, but designers can only grow ivy over them. I am sure we don't want to grow ivy over any of the DOME design concepts on view tonight.'

More on the DOME project here
See pictures from the Private View here
See feature on BBC News website here
See feature in New Scientist here
See feature in The Lancet here