London Design Festival showcases healthcare design hub at Imperial

The HELIX Centre is a joint initiative between the Institute of Global Health Innovation and the Royal College of Art.

The HELIX Centre will open its doors to the public this month to demonstrate how it is applying design to tackle key healthcare challenges.

The Healthcare Innovation Exchange (HELIX) based in St Mary’s Hospital, is a joint initiative between Imperial’s Institute of Global Health Innovation and the Royal College of Art. It brings together a multi-disciplinary team of designers, engineers, doctors, nurses, technologists and entrepreneurs to design innovative solutions to common healthcare challenges faced by patients and NHS staff.

As part of the 2015 London Design Festival, the HELIX design team are inviting the public, hospital staff and patients to explore their pioneering pop-up studio over four days in September. Visitors will be asked to contribute their thoughts and ideas to help the Centre solve its current healthcare challenge - how design can help provide better care and more choice toward the end of a patient’s life.

The HELIX Centre will open its doors to the public this month as part of the 2014 London Design Festival

Making a difference

Over the four days, the Centre will also host an exhibition of other HELIX design projects which are helping to make a difference in patient care, including a smartphone app to help young children better manage their asthma, a card game which encourages fun physical activity among children, and a ‘Cancer Pathway Planner’ which aims to improve the experience of cancer patients by helping them better understand their care.

Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham, Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial and co-director of the Helix Centre, said: “Installing a culture of design at the heart of healthcare innovation is the main aim of the HELIX Centre.  Our design studio, embedded in a hospital, provides a unique petri dish for collaborative innovation between designers, clinicians, patients and members of the public.  We are delighted to open our studio doors during the Design Festival”. 

More information about the event.

The HELIX studio open days are:

• Sunday 20 September (11am – 5pm)
• Monday 21 September (Midday – 6pm)
• Friday 25 September (Midday – 6pm)
• Saturday 26 September (11am – 5pm)

HELIX at Imperial Fringe: Designs for life

In addition to hosting activities at the Centre, the HELIX team will be taking part in a special design-themed Imperial Fringe event on Thursday 24 September 2015 from 17:00 to 20:00 in the Imperial Union Concert Hall, Beit Quad. To register for the event please visit the Designs for Life Eventbrite page