Participation in healthcare environment engineering

This research programme will positively affect health and well-being and improve healthcare effectiveness to benefit the UK population. The aim is to create a team to deliver high impact research to improve the user experience of healthcare environments, through user participation in design, engineering and decision making. This research will produce (1) better healthcare environment designs; and (2) new methods for end user participation in engineering.Engineering produces things (environments, products, processes) to improve our quality of life, yet the people who will ultimately use these things are often not involved in their design (or if they are, this often amounts to tokenistic consultation , rather than embedded best practice). Decision making needs to directly involve the people who use these things, to capture their subjective opinions, ideas, language, feelings, and needs and translate these into a format meaningful for engineers. Involving people in engineering can have a transformative effect on new products and environments, but since this is not traditionally part of formal engineering training, the benefits of participation still have huge, untapped potential. Furthermore, the notion that engineering can be enhanced through working with other disciplines is only just beginning to have an impact in engineering practice. A radical step change is needed now, to equip our next generations of young engineers with the know-how to think in new creative waysParticipation is most powerful when it contributes to improving quality of life, and healthcare is the most timely and relevant application of this. The UK has been left with a legacy of aged hospital buildings that are unsuitable for the needs of today's increasing and ageing population. The design of healthcare environments can be linked to health outcomes so it is increasingly important to optimise the design and user experience of new build and redeveloped healthcare projects. The challenges faced by healthcare environment design are complex. Infection control, safety, security and environmental issues all impose constraints, and now the advent of patient choice means that the whole hospital environment must effectively sell the hospital as a carefully packaged experience. Improving healthcare design through participation requires a highly inter-disciplinary approach. This research programme draws together engineering with design, architecture, psychology, science, ICT and healthcare. Hospitals and industry will provide real life users and opportunities for piloting novel participatory design approaches (for example, in creating a better experience for patients in the Emergency Department). Government involvement will help to drive forward policy change, and crucially, end users (patients, staff, decision makers) are involved throughout. This programme of research is executed through 4 core research themes: (1) methods of participation, including exploiting developments in Information and Communication technology (ICT) as an enabler to participation; (2) best-use of representations of future healthcare environments for co-designing with, and presenting concepts to stakeholders; (3) data capture from these representations, and the best use, re-use and presentation of data to decision-makers; and (4) production of an evidence-base for this research by measuring the effects of engineering and design interventions on health and healthcare effectiveness. The ultimate vision is that this work will launch a step-change in engineering research, which will impact upon practice and education. This programme will set a precedent for user involvement in engineering, demonstrating how highly inter-disciplinary research teams can inject creativity and humanity into the creation of environments, products and services in new ways - which will lead to true innovation in design and engineering in the 21st Century.

The beneficiaries of this research are: Society -The UK public, as patients, users, carers benefit through improved health outcomes and sense of wellbeing through healthcare delivered in well-designed environments; and through the empowerment experienced from involvement in decision making and design. -Clinicians and medical professionals benefit through better workplace design; and through empowerment by being involved in the decision making and design of their workplace. -The NHS benefit through impacts upon improved patient outcomes and improved healthcare delivery leading to reduced costs. -National and local government (e.g. Department for Health), and government agencies (e.g. the Commission for -Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), the Design Council) benefit through acquiring the knowledge (design guidance, and its evidence base) needed to drive forward policy change. -The general public, clinicians and healthcare providers in other countries will see impact once my programme has positively impacted the UK. -Membership organisations such as the Alzheimer's Society benefit through using the research to produce position statements on issues of importance, to influence and implement public policy that is in the best interests of the groups they represent, e.g. designing healthcare environments to be inclusive for the growing number of people with dementia. -Charities such as the RNIB (Royal national Institute of Blind People) benefit through research which promotes the greater inclusion of the groups they support (e.g. the blind and partially sighted) in the design of their healthcare environments Knowledge and Economy -Engineers, designers, architects, planners, the construction industry benefit through the impact of new design guidance; and the sharing and generation of new knowledge through inter-disciplinary working. -Medical products developers benefit through acquiring the knowledge to improve their products (and increasing sales) through better understanding of their users -ICT developers (UK-based and international) benefit through trialling their technologies in new applications, leading to the innovative exploitation of new products and technologies, and sales in the longer term. -WMG and the University of Warwick benefit through on-going research profile enhancement. People -I personally benefit through development as a research leader, and through seeing positive outcomes in an area that I feel passionately about. -My team members benefit through the exciting training and career development opportunities offered. -The next generation of young engineers benefit through the inclusion of my research in taught programmes, equipping them with new, exciting approaches to engineering, and in the long term through a more human-focused approach to engineering and design generally. The NHS; healthcare designers, engineers and architects; and ICT developers are already engaged. These partners will help me to grow my multi-disciplinary group through introductions to other (UK and international) partners and beneficiaries, including the Department of Health. The mechanisms for engagement will be: my research programme advisory panel; an interactive programme website; regular e-newsletters; programme flyers and findings leaflets; industrial secondments; visiting fellowships; programme symposiums; press releases; journals and conference papers. The public will be engaged through participating in the research itself, and also through: an interactive website; web-based documentaries and podcasts available through YouTube.com; a short film; Science and Engineering Ambassador activities; public and science exhibitions. Research with exploitation potential (e.g. tools, software) will be exploited through Warwick Ventures. The PI will be responsible for directing impact activities, supported by the researchers, partners, the university and appropriate training.