This rumination is silly. The answer is obvious: it’s when “device and drug companies” don’t have an obligation to increase profits over everything else.

Feel free to start your own device + pharma company and beat the competition.

Do you really think there is a lack of innovation + design going towards healthcare products? OR is there, conversely, a massive amount of attention being paid to those innovations that are intentionally shelved to squeeze every last bit of profit out of disease as possible?

I’m guessing that the vast majority of product design, UX/UI design grad students and thesis projects revolve around simple innovations and research into these topics. Institute of Design literally has classes devoted to creating better healthcare products, lead by various corporations upper management. They don’t fizzle away. They just are priced up.

I’m not really following the thrust of this post, you’re acting as though these ideas aren’t being generated. They are. They’re not being used, intentionally, for ROI / cost-effectivity reasons. It isn’t the “sad state of product design and innovation” it is the “sad state of corporatized, profit-driven health care.”

These things have been redesigned ad nauseum. They aren’t design problems at this point.