An international conference on best-practice medical design for 2020 was held at the S. Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology, Technion, on Thursday, June 14. The conference was subtitled: A Scientist-Practitioner Dialogue, and featured both practicing industrial designers and scholars who research the subject, from Israel and abroad. The objective was to facilitate ongoing dialogue between those who consume design (companies), those who supply design (industrial designers) and those who research and teach design.

The conference was organized and chaired by Dr. Noemi Bitterman, head of the Industrial Design M.Sc. Program, in the Faculty of Architecture & Town Planning, Technion, assisted by Prof. Medardo Chiapponi, Head of Medical Design at IUAV, Venice, Italy, and Prof. Shlomo Maital, Academic Director, TIM-Technion institute of Management.

The keynote address was given by Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg, economic advisor to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In his talk, Prof. Trajtenberg noted that "we have made progress in conquering diseases that have exogenous causes, e.g. cancer, microbes, bacteria. But we are NOT good at addressing diseases caused by social habits, such as smoking and obesity. An increasing part of medical expenditures should be devoted to prevention, to changing social habits!"

Prof. Chiapponi noted that "patients increasingly assume themselves the responsibility of deciding about their medical treatments" and are doing an increasing number of medical procedures at home. This will require closer cooperation among university, industry and healthcare institutions, with design playing a key role. Philips (Israel) CEO Omri Levin described Philips' experience in designing ambient experience for healthcare and discussed next-generation products. Prof. Ron Nabarro, Technion, discussed "Discrimination by Design" and showed how some designs discriminate against older persons, and explained how and why design can be more inclusive.

A panel on "Best practice design education" chaired by Prof. Maital including some of Israel's top design educators, from Bezalel (Ido Bruno), Hadassah College (Kenneth Segal), Ofer Zick (Holon Institute of Technology), and Alex Padwa (Shenkar College of Engineering and Design), along with David de Vries, head of the Technology practice at Israel's leading patent law firm, Reinhold, Cohen. Panel members outlined unique approaches to training next-generation designers.

Prof. George Mann, innovator in health facilities design at Texas A&M's College of Architecture, discussed "architecture for health" and described major projects ongoing all over the world, including in Israel (for instance, at the HaEmek Hospital, Afula and at Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem). Technion IE&M Prof. Daniel Gopher presented a case study, in which his Human Factors group resolved a chronic problem in radiology at Rambam Hospital, because of a poorly-designed paper form.

Prof. Michael Radnor, Northwestern University, discussed how a compelling innovative business model can revolutionize health care, and described the example of India, where a pioneering ophthalmic surgeon has mass-produced cataract surgery, lowering the cost so that ordinary people can afford it and hence restoring sight to thousands of persons.

Prof. Victor Margolin, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, spoke about design for social needs, and protested the fact that today most design is "design for the market". He presented two models of "social design", as part of the process of delivering social rights to all humanity.

Conference Chair Dr. Noemi Bitterman discussed E-health systems and described several studies showing how websites can best be designed to optimize use by older people. She stressed that websites should not be designed exclusively for older people, but that they should take into the account the special needs of this group, while being available and attractive for young people as well.

The conference concluded with two videos originating with the Digital Health Group at Intel Corp. The videos demonstrated the Mobile Clinical Assistant, a mobile device that can photograph, call, communicate, store and present data, and link persons at home (especially older ones) with care givers and health care professionals. While Intel does not make these devices, it has invested heavily in their development, with the view to generating demand for Intel microprocessors and at the same time resolve soaring health costs and prevent errors in medical treatment because of faulty data.

Over 140 persons participated, from Academe, Israeli high-tech companies (both established and startups), and from the Israel design community. Among sponsors were the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Employment, S. Neaman Institute, TIM-Tel Aviv, and Reinhold, Cohen Group.

*Clockwise (starting top left): Technion VP Peretz Lavie; Prof. Yoel Donchin; Lavie with Prof. (emer.) Ehud Lenz; (Northwestern Univ.) Prof. M. Radnor (with Prof. S. Maital); Technion Prof. Ron Nabarro with Prof. Victor Margolin (Univ. of Chicago); Prof. Nadav Liron (with Prof. S. Maital); Liron, Lavie and Lenz; TIM alumnus A. Robinson (Teva).