Supporting a green and just transition for NHS Scotland

Flow

Flow is an interactive game designed to help NHS Scotland staff visualise patient movement through hospitals, particularly focusing on urgent or semi-urgent care at NHS Tayside.

About the Project

Flow utilises digital technology and engaging features to assist healthcare professionals in planning and making better decisions, ultimately promoting more sustainable and efficient healthcare practices.

By allowing users to explore different scenarios, Flow identifies ways to optimise hospital activities while also emphasising efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of healthcare services.

Our approach combines design thinking and game design methods, focusing on empathy, ideation, and iterative development. We co-designed the game with healthcare professionals to create patient personas and map their hospital journeys. Additionally, NHS Scotland colleagues provided a data ecosystem map, which helps visualise data and supply chain information, so we can use data modelling to represent the current system.

Through ideation sessions and game design techniques, we will simulate scenarios and “playable episodes” that reflect real decision points and climate issues within NHS Scotland’s healthcare system.

Project Video

Design HOPES is a collaborative design-led research initiative, comprising five Scottish Universities (University of Strathclyde, University of Dundee, Heriot Watt University, Abertay University, and the University of Edinburgh), NHS Scotland, the third sector, and design organisations.

This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the Future Observatory GTE Hub Programme at the Design Museum.

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