A conference bringing together designers, creative practitioners, researchers, clinicians, policy makers and end users to explore the intersection of design and health. Originally planned for Amsterdam, 1 to 3 July 2020.
The theme chosen collectively by the organising committee
Established in 2011, the Design4Health conference series provides a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue between creative practice and healthcare. The 2020 edition, the sixth in the European series, was organised around the theme "Designing Future Health," inviting participants to examine what health will look like in the years ahead and how current research trends translate into future opportunities for design and health.
Submissions were invited in 2019 addressing questions such as: What will health look like in the future? How might current research trends translate into the future for design and health? Which skills will be needed? How might current research translate into practice through participatory methods, interdisciplinarity, and circular design approaches?
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the physical conference could not take place as planned in Amsterdam. Nevertheless, the request for papers continued, resulting in a historically high number of submissions. The peer-reviewed proceedings, comprising 92 full papers and 24 abstracts, were published online by Sheffield Hallam University.
Date: 1 to 3 July 2020 (cancelled)
Doctoral Colloquium: 30 June 2020
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Theme: Designing Future Health
Proceedings: Published online (4 volumes, ISBN 978-1-8381117-0-0)
Navigate to the different sections of Design4Health 2020
Areas of research explored at Design4Health 2020
Research at the intersection of healthy city design, accessibility, inclusive environments, sports, exercise science and wellbeing.
Person-centred care, co-production of services, healthcare facilitation, community informatics, participatory design methods and lived experience.
Conceptual design for connected care environments, wearable technologies, artificial intelligence, telemedicine and shared decision-making systems.
Designing clear and ethical personal health data representations, informatics, dashboards and storytelling for better patient outcomes.
Public health, global health, cost-effective interventions, prevention strategies, circular design in healthcare settings and resilient communities.
Design for health through strategic mapping, scenario planning, tradable care chains, integrated care models and service innovation.
A collaboration between four leading institutions in design and health
Updates from the design for health community
As the field of design for health matures, questions about how best to prepare the next generation of practitioners have become increasingly pressing. Traditional design education, rooted in studio practice and aesthetic considerations, may not fully equip graduates to navigate the complexities of healthcare systems.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced unprecedented changes across every sector of society, and the design for health community was no exception. Conferences were cancelled, research plans were disrupted, and the urgent demands of the public health response redirected attention and resources.
Research from the Urban Institute reveals that four in ten adults with disabilities experience unfair treatment in healthcare settings. More than half of those surveyed reported delays in receiving care due to discrimination. These findings highlight a persistent gap between the principles of inclusive design and the reality of healthcare environments.
The World Health Organization has published its first evidence-based guidelines on digital health interventions, marking a significant milestone for the global health community. The guidelines provide recommendations on ten ways that countries can use digital technologies to improve health outcomes.
A comprehensive systematic review published by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion examined how design thinking methodologies have been applied across diverse healthcare settings and conditions, finding that interventions developed using this approach consistently outperformed traditionally developed alternatives.