Stuart Karten of Karten Design spoke at a medical design expo earlier this year about the future of business models within the healthcare industry. In the same way that Uber disrupted the taxi industry by embracing the culture around the use of mobile technology and making users the focus of the experience, Karten believes that the future of healthcare will see the formation of new companies looking to put patients rather than hospitals at the centre of healthcare products and services.
Karten also reflected on the role of smart technologies in the future of healthcare:
We are also seeing a transformation of the man-machine relationship—we are starting to wear computers, and soon, we will be implanting them into our bodies to connect with our communication systems, cars, and homes… In healthcare, highly evolved sensors and powerful algorithms will give us proactive, personalized care… Technology has set all of this change in motion. It’s up to product designers and developers to ensure that patients have a positive experience with this new technology—that it makes their lives simpler and richer rather than burdening them down.”
With an aging population and increasing lifespans, design for healthcare is set to become an evermore important industry with endless opportunities for meaningful design.
