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Use, Design and Innovation

Focus points for the Use, Design and Innovation group

The group conducts research in participatory design and develops healthcare prototypes and concepts. Focus is on providing IT-based healthcare solutions that work across time, place and space. Such solutions are often referred to as a means of meeting the global challenge of an ageing population suffering from lifestyle diseases.

However, technology alone is seldom enough. We need to involve the users in shaping the technology. So when we design technology, we involve users, conduct field studies and experiment with solutions in collaboration with citizens and healthcare staff to make sure that we are always on the right track!

›   Empirical and theoretical research in use, design and innovation processes.

›   Accomplished through large-scale projects where users, companies and researchers cooperate

›   Currently most projects are within health and care

“At the end of the day, the best solutions are designed by those who know exactly where the shoe pinches. A product may be technologically advanced, but the technology is pointless if, for some reason, the users are unable to use it, don’t like it or feel that it’s merely an obstacle.”
(Morten Kyng, Professor and Research & Innovation Manager)

Many activities are based in “Centre for Pervasive Healthcare” that gathers anthropologists, computer scientists, clinicians and architects from several departments at Aarhus University and the Alexandra Institute. The centre collaborates with companies, other universities and healthcare players.

About the group

The primary objective of the group is to develop an open source ecosystem for telemedicine providers and consumers across municipalities, regions and hospitals. The group is interdisciplinary and consists of computer scientists, ethnographers, architects and engineers.  

The group works with open source technology, international standards and infrastructure that enables municipalities, hospitals and telemedicine providers to link up to the system.

It will be a great advantage for companies, hospitals, municipalities and patients that they can link up to a development platform based on common international standards. In this way, all parties will have easy access to common modules and tools – without having to deal with data transfer, storage formats and security. Instead, they can each focus on what they do best.

If you want to join the group for writing a thesis, you can see an example of a thesis on diabetes and xxx here.

The group is currently working on two major projects:

Collaboration with the Alexandra Institute and a number of institutions on a large-scale telemedicine project called Denmark – a pioneer in telemedicine. The project provides advice to public and private organisations on how to boost the quality and scope of telemedicine and how to expand telemedicine coverage.

The foundation for software-based healthcare services – 4S – is an organisation that aims to make it easier to work with healthcare data across sectors and providers. Initially, 4S focuses on telemedicine and telecare and on making it easier, faster and cheaper to practically achieve better solutions through open technologies and international standards. To achieve this, 4S makes open tools, platforms and tutorials available to users, municipalities, regions and healthcare providers.

Read more at: http://4s-online.dk/wordpress/

Read more about the history of the group