Secondary Research
Project Brief:
The global population is estimated to be over 7.8 billion people. Over 15%, or 1.1 billion, experience some form of disability. These numbers are expected to rise significantly within the next ten years due to advancements in medical care supporting the growing aging population.
Individuals living with disabilities are often dependent on another individual or technology to perform activities for self-care, mobility, and access to healthcare. The challenge, however, is that providing patient-centered care that is inclusive for individuals with varying levels of physical, cognitive, and sensory impairments is easier said than done. Many health systems strive to personalize care, but constraints in the system — financial, operational, clinical, regulatory, socio-cultural — often perpetuate a one-size-fits-all mentality. This can be more pronounced in some contexts of care where impairments of ability and cultural insensitivities impact the patient experience in both subtle and profound ways. In those circumstances, how might a healthcare system become a proponent of inclusivity in both personal/private and social/public forums? How might those directives manifest within communication, environments, and products?
As an industrial designer, the scope of this project involves solving the issue of lack of inclusivity for people with disabilities or the opportunity to bridge the communication between staff and the disabled.
2 Options:
- How might we design on-site patient-centered communications, environments, and products that are inclusive of and sensitive to the needs of people with disabilities, as well as social and cultural distinctions, to enable greater trust and comfort that leads to better care?
- How might we accept and honor all patients through the delivery of customer service, environmental sensitivity, and the reflection of staff/visitor behavior?
Secondary Research:
UPMC (UPMC Mercy Building) — researching on how UPMC addresses disabilities (physical rehabilitation and visual impairment)
https://www.upmc.com/media/news/031419-vision-rehab-tower
“The tower rooftop will be dedicated to an outdoor rehabilitation garden, where vision and rehabilitation patients can practice negotiating everyday obstacles like ramps, stairs and curbs and different surfaces such as concrete, wood and cobblestone. The garden will offer patients a safe and healing environment in which to prepare for real-life experiences.
The state-of-the-art facility also will offer gene and cell therapies to treat diseases of the eye. Other vision services for patients will include high-resolution imaging and state-of-the-art ocular testing, laser-assisted cataract surgery, micro-invasive ocular surgery and more than 25 scientific teams developing the therapies of tomorrow to fight blindness. In addition, an urgent care eye clinic for eye and vision emergencies with extended hours where patients can access ophthalmologist specialists directly.”
UPMC describes the services that will be available for patients in their new building for the visually impaired and for rehabilitation. For this new building they want to push their options for the people with disabilities and be more inclusive by providing a building plan and new tools.
https://www.upmc.com/media/news/031219-vision-rehab-tower-groundbreaking
“Highlights of the new nine-story tower will include:
- 410,000-square-feet of collaborative space for clinicians, researchers, educators and industry partners.
- State-of-the-art facility to deliver gene and cell therapy to the eye.
- Innovative, fully mocked-up apartment where patients can relearn critical life skills.
- A 3-D street lab with simulated city streets, offices and meeting rooms to help patients with low vision navigate their surroundings.”
UPMC has a lot of amazing technology available to patients in order to push the boundaries of visual reparation.
Visual impairment services are available to all along with different options for testing for the needs of the patients. They also provide a special needs page that offers support (such as grocery shopping) and transportation, but not a lot of detail is in the page.
Summary:
UPMC already has services to address the visual repairment, but what makes UPMC so inclusive? Their building plans and their vision to allow people with all sorts of disabilities help incoming patients feel welcome and know that they are included into the community.
However, what exactly allows their services to become inclusive? Besides the buildings plans, how can UPMC directly provide services within areas such as social interactions, or the environmental interactions around them?
Next Steps:
- Ask UPMC more specifics on how their visual repair services (step by step)
- Look at the specifics of floor plans and know what their thinking process is
- Get primary research material
