HELIX focuses on transforming healthcare using design.
HELIX Director Ara Darzi writes for the Guardian about healthcare innovation and the potential for a design-led approach to improving healthcare.
The Institute of Global Health Innovation’s HELIX Centre for Design in Healthcare, a joint initiative between Imperial and the Royal College of Art, was recently featured in an article in the Guardian newspaper.
Joint HELIX Director Lord Darzi said “Design was never mentioned when I was at medical school, yet is has a huge amount to contribute to improving healthcare”.
The striking photo the Guardian have chosen for this piece (a glam rocker playing air guitar) relates to the HELIX project “Zilli“. Zilli is a card game that encourages physical activity by challenging players to compete with silly actions to win each round. Air guitar is a favourite of these activities, along with ‘walking like a bear’, ‘zombie walk’ and ‘be a tree’. Zilli was recently crowdfunded on Kickstarter, and will soon be available to buy on Amazon.
Lord Darzi also describes their asthma management app ‘Floot’ which helps children to manage their peak flow readings and record their asthma attacks, enabling better management of the condition.
It’s not all about children either. HELIX have recently launched a new communication tool for breast cancer patients at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Called a ‘Care Map’, which aims to make the cancer treatment journey less daunting and more accessible, giving an overview of the ‘people, places and processes’ of their care.
If you would like to know more about the work of HELIX, talk to them about ideas for design and healthcare, or see their celebrated studio, come to their London Design Festival open days in September.
The HELIX studio open days are listed below.
Full details can be found here.
Read the article on the Guardian website here.
Stay up to speed with their projects via twitter: @helixcentre , @flootapp, @getzilli, @Imperial_IGHI
Article text (excluding photos or graphics) available under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons license.
Photos and graphics subject to third party copyright used with permission or © Imperial College London.
Reporter
Jo Seed
Institute of Global Health Innovation
Contact details
Email: press.office@imperial.ac.uk
Show all stories by this author
