Demystifying 21st Century Healthcare Design Practice.

Healthcare design is now emerging from the shadows to be recognised as a distinct design discipline in its own right. A new discipline with patient safety at its heart, a practice that requires systems thinking and collaboration to tackle complex challenges and a practice conducted within a stringent ethical framework. Healthcare design practice is an emerging territory sparsely populated with high quality design exemplars. This chapter seeks to demystify these practices by providing a textual roadmap to support and inspire the new agoras who wish to engage with 21st healthcare design. Conversely it is hoped its content will also serve as a catalyst for healthcare providers who wish to reap the rewards associated with embracing a design-led approach with design practitioners at the very core of their service innovation teams.