Human error and systemic failure lead to unnecessary harm and suffering for health service patients, including permanent impairment and loss of life. Research indicates that in up to 10 per cent of all hospital admissions some kind of adverse incident occurs, more than half of which are believed to be avoidable. The effect on staff and the £2 billion plus consequential costs further increase the need to improve all aspects of patient safety. Design has an important and hitherto unrecognised role in meeting this challenge.
The Royal College of Art has a strong track record in design for patient safety, dating back to the research and development of the King’s Fund bed in the 1970s. Since 2000, the RCA has renewed its focus in this area. This was begun by Professor Roger Coleman, who was one of the authors of the 2003 Department of Health report Design for Patient Safety: a system-wide design-led approach to tackling patient safety in the NHS. The report was endorsed by the Chief Medical Officer and has been the springboard for subsequent projects in design to improve patient safety. The Helen Hamlyn Centre was honoured with the President’s Medal of the Ergonomics Society (2005) for this work.
A multidisciplinary design-research team was built up at the Helen Hamlyn Centre through successful collaborations with the NHS, industry and other research institutions. The team developed its own evidence-based and user-centred methodology and applied this to the design of medication packaging, ambulance design standardisation, and the development of hospital equipment. Recent work for the Department of Health and the Design Council has resulted in a number of prototypes which are now part of a 2009 touring exhibition, and have won two MADE awards for use of materials. In 2007 a new resuscitation trolley was overall winner in the Anaesthesia and Critical Care section of the Medical Futures Innovation Awards. Pre-production prototypes are currently on trial prior to manufacture in the UK.
