Designer-in-Residence to bring benefits to hospital

Innovate Health at Tallaght University Hospital is delighted to announce a new Designer-in-Residence position co-funded by the HSE Spark Innovation Programme.

This position, announced as the hospital celebrates its second annual Innovation Week, will bring the benefits of design perspective directly to the ideas and challenges of frontline staff in the hospital.

Designers can provide an invaluable role in healthcare – they start by developing a clear understanding of the problem, rather than jumping directly to a potential solution. By more clearly understanding the problem and in particular by empathising and co-designing with users, in this case patients and staff, the ideas and solutions can be more clearly crystallised and hopefully more impactful.

The Spark Programme has been a key proponent of the benefits of design within healthcare. Dermot Burke Spark’s National HSCP Innovation Fellow commented: “We are delighted to help bring to life this exciting new position at TUH. Design in healthcare, with its creative and human centred approach, can help provide impactful solutions that benefit both the patient and the health service. At Spark, we strive to encourage and support frontline innovation and look forward to seeing what this partnership between design and health can deliver.”

Dr Natalie Cole, Head of Innovation at Innovate Health TUH said “We are really looking forward to having this position within the Hospital.

“The designer role will bring a particular skillset to support us in addressing user-identified needs and challenges. We hope this will help us in the delivery of our vision of actionable innovation with direct benefits for our patients.”