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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/C514165/1
Title: Ideal states:a joint knowledge and operating framework for design & Medical practices-Designing for the 21st Century Research Cluster
Principal Investigator: Macdonald, Professor A
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
HFE Solutions University of Glasgow
Department: Product Design Engineering
Organisation: Glasgow School of Art
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 24 January 2005 Ends: 23 January 2006 Value (£): 50,936
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Design Engineering Med.Instrument.Device& Equip.
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Healthcare
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
The disciplines of design, assisted by the healthcare professions, tend to respond to medically identified problems associated with ageing and illness in characteristic, and often pre-conceived ways. Within healthcare itself, different schools of thought and approaches to practice can perceive the problem differently and influence what might be considered a design solution, the effectiveness of that solution, and its impact on the wellbeing of a patient. There is ample evidence, despite the considerable knowledge and expertise in both fields, that many design solutions are neither fully appropriate or particularly effective. This proposal brings together the two fields of design and healthcare, both principally associated with practice and with Improving quality of life. It aims to provide an approach for allowing the two fields to not only enjoy a better understanding of each others' fields, but a more structured way of working more closely and effectively together. This is particularly Important at this point in history when the population Is ageing and which will pose particular challenges for the future.The research duster seeks to clarify, through discussion and illustrated examples, how both design and healthcare describe and model the needs and goals of individuals and their pathways through illness or as they age, and the particular types of design responses that might be required, and how these evolve, in these pathways.This duster provides an opportunity to explore and collaborate in ways outside of our usual immediately perceived roles and ways of working together and seeks to look at problems in new ways by discovering the areas of thinking and practice that are common to both the design and the healthcare professions, to explore their creative differences, and the differences and misunderstandings that create obstacles to providing more effective design solutions for healthcare that better meet people's needs and goals.This cluster seeks funding to produce not only a structure for sharing the knowledge, expertise and procedures of each field more clearly and effectively, but also to enable individuals' pathways through Illness and the ageing process to be visualized and understood dearly by both fields. It seeks to achieve these through a year-long dialogue between a broad range of design and health care disciplines through a series of focused seminars and workshops. This will commence with the 'local' cluster of different specialisms within the School of Design at the Glasgow School of Art and a corresponding group of specialisms within healthcare at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Glasgow. Through our respective contacts at a national, and international level, the debate within this Initial cluster will be quickly expanded principally through a pro-active visual website resource, which will draw in comment on the structures and models that emerge from the discussions. This will allow us to continually review the contributions to the discussion and identify those best able to join us for each subsequent seminar and workshop and to help us meet our goals.
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Organisation Website: http://www.gsa.ac.uk