4x projects that contribute to the healthcare transition
Healthcare is not about numbers, check marks and spreadsheets. It’s about people. People who provide care and people who receive care. Yet for years, the prevailing idea was to run healthcare organisations, such as hospitals and welfare organisations, as commercial enterprises. This meant a focus on economies of scale, top-down structures, ‘efficiency’ and measurable goals. Putting healthcare workers back at the centre of a new healthcare system requires a transition from control and management to trust in people. No time registration, but multi-year agreements with insurers. No competition, but more cooperation between hospitals, insurers and welfare organisations. Does this still sound somewhat distant and abstract? Visit the following projects during Dutch Design Week 2023 to learn more about the healthcare transition.
Hendrik-Jan Grievink – iCare (because you do)
Hendrik-Jan Grievink is a designer affiliated with Next Nature. He translates philosophical concepts into images, objects and experiences. He developed the iCare (Because You Do) concept for the Máxima MC and Fontys Centre of Expertise Health joint exhibition. In this installation, actors bring to life a (fictional) healthcare scenario in the year 2034. In ten years’ time, the ageing population in the Netherlands will have reached its peak and e-health will be a social reality. Actors playing the roles of doctor, nurse, iPatient, chatbot and informal caregiver share their dreams, fears and desires. Each from their own perspective. The improvised stories invite reflection on the role of artificial intelligence within healthcare: what does it mean when healthcare becomes simultaneously more personal and more impersonal?
iCare (Because You Do) is part of the Embassy of Health in Foundation We Are at Strijp-S in Eindhoven.
Cyan D’Anjou – Organic Social Capital
This is a measure of our social status, based on our care and commitment to nature. Like Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Organic Social Capital (OSC) measures and compares what people do, but emphasises care, nutrition and community health over economics. In so doing, sculptor and media creator Cyan D’Anjou investigates what would happen if we gave more to nature than we take from it. Unlike capitalism, which focuses on money, OSC shifts the focus to the often invisible work of care. It emphasises the important role that caring plays in maintaining a healthy environment (umwelt) for nature and society. D’Anjou’s work is speculative. Using multidisciplinary installations and conceptual narratives, she lets you experience what this could be like.
This project can be found during DDW23 in the Embassy of Health exhibition in Foundation We Are at Strijp-S in Eindhoven.
Muzus – Rookvrij Leven voor Iedereen
Smoking is one of the main causes of health inequities. Although more and more people are quitting smoking, there is still a very large group who unfortunately do not. Design agency Muzus creates meaningful change for social issues. In the Smoke-Free Living for Everyone programme, Muzus collaborates with the national expertise centre Pharos, the GGD, professionals from the social and healthcare sectors, other key figures and experience experts. For example, Muzus came up with the Praatpeuk (‘Talking Cigarette’) based on an idea by Lot Broos, who was looking for extra support while quitting. She made the cuddly toy cigarette together with her mother, who was once an hardcore smoker as well, to embrace in times of need. The Praatpeuk helps facilitate conversations about smoking and exposure to smoking.
This project can be found during DDW23 in the Embassy of Health exhibition in Foundation We Are at Strijp-S in Eindhoven.
Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken – De LOBBY
Young people who are or have been incarcerated often find returning to the outside to be more difficult than having to be on the inside. Many Rotterdam youth who are released from juvenile detention are at risk of being incarcerated again within a few months. They do not get out of the vicious cycle that already existed before their detention. De LOBBY helps reduce the divide between detention and the wider world. With this design research, social design agency Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken, forensic care organisation Exodus, Young Perspectives (Yope), an organisation that meets young people and professionals in detention and closed youth care facilities, and Stichting Zwerfjongeren Nederland are helping shape the path from the inside to the outside. A first sight: inside and outside are not well connected. Together with these young people, the organisations are designing eight pilot facilities to help provide a smoother reintegration into society. There, they can learn through practice!
During DDW23, the results of the first phase of this research can be seen in the Embassy of Safety exhibition in the Klokgebouw in Eindhoven.