AstroMission: A game that facilitates the emotional connection between children with cancer and their parents

In Turkey, roughly 3000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer every year (Kebudi, 2012). Although there are different types of pediatric cancers, their trajectory is similar and filled with various physical and psychosocial challenges for the patients and their families. Moreover, cancer usually causes a drastic life change for the...

Doplor Sleep: Friendly feedback towards a better hospital soundscape for sleep

Recently in the Netherlands, researchers have found that sleep duration and quality were suboptimal in the hospital. Evidence proved that many modifiable hospitalrelated factors negatively associate with patients' sleep (JAMA Internal Medicine, 2018). The sound factor is the most significant sleep disturbance in the hospital. In this graduation...

Hospitable Hospital

Healthcare has been often described as the most complex human organization ever devised.<br/>The life of hospitals has been supplanted many times by an aseptic compliance with norms, regulations, procedures, protocols, and hyper technologies. Hence, there is no longer any trace of the old sacred enclosures, the Greek temples, the Roman...

Doplor: Artful warnings towards a more silent Intensive Care

The critical care environment has been witnessed to be one that is unsuitable for sleeping in during day time. Auditory disturbances happen approximately every 12 to 15 minutes, and this is preventing patients to get into their deep sleep during for example the nurse's lunch break. Being able to get into deep sleep has been proven to be very...

Organ factory: 2050 Schiphol transplantation hospital

The thesis explores the site of Niuewe Meer in the context of the near future of 2050. The research deals with the new urban phenomena of airport cities - their urban qualities and the issues they pose for development of expanding city borders. On the case of a new passenger driven typology - the airport hospital, it investigates how future...

BIM as a communication and collaboration tool for the design and operation phase of hospital buildings: A case study research into validating and verifying the design and BIM model by the project team and client & end-users

According to literature, the benefits of BIM can be well found in complex projects such as healthcare. When well implemented, the use of BIM as a tool for communication and collaboration can lead to a higher design quality and quality of the realized building, as well as increased efficiency and costs savings. <br/>BIM can be used for integrated...

Managing Efficiency on Euhydration measurements

The problem encountered by TIM Solutions was mainly based on experiences of their own in different hospitals. The project was therefore started with mapping the wishes of possibile users and mapping the current context. Already in the beginning it turned out that fluid balance measurements are well based estimations as not all aspects are being...

Exploring animation in the design of a mobile intra-logistics robot: Project Mo

The focus of this project is two-fold: first it explores how animation can be used to make functional robots more intuitively understandable. A framework for functional robot developers, to apply animations in the designed behaviours of their products, is proposed. Second, it demonstrates the value of the incorporation of animated behaviours, as...

Supporting the Situational Awareness at the Emergency Department

The Emergency Department (ED) treats patients who have acute conditions and operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. At the ED department at the University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMCU), the patients are treated in single rooms. There is not always direct contact between patients and the ED team, because the team is responsible for...

Creating an optimal OR schedule regarding downstream resources

A high percentage of hospital admissions is due to surgical interventions. The operating theatre, which holds the operating rooms (ORs), is therefore one of the key resources in hospitals. Managing the operating theatre and finding an optimal OR schedule is complex due to the many factors that influence it. Scheduling a surgery in an OR...

MedExpress: Design of a lean supply chain for MedTech supplies within hospitals

TNT is the preferred express provider of several large MedTech suppliers in Europe, delivering medical devices to hospitals with various special services. Due to competition replicating these services, TNT no longer possesses key differentiators, and is losing ground against competition. Furthermore, hospitals are innovating in their supply...

ISET self-triage system for the Rotterdam Eye Hospital

The Rotterdam Ophthalmic institute is developing a self-triage instrument - named the ISET - for the Rotterdam Eye Hospital (OZR). During development it became clear that the software was functional but the usability of the and the appearance of the device needed more attention This project’s aim was to improve usability for both patients and...

The Hospital back in the City: A public function for the regeneration of Zaandam Kogerveld

The regeneration of the area Zaandam Kogerveld was initiated by a Hospital. The Hospital reintegrates with the city and is placed on a central location - next to the station Kogerveld. By placing the Hospital, the area receives a new identity and a dwelling character. The Hospital is altered to connect with it's surrounding urban structure and...

Saving costs and improving quality of care for hospitals by reducing variation in hospital bed occupation through the master surgical schedule

Due to rising costs and an increasing demand for health care services Dutch hospitals are looking for ways to reduce costs while maintaining or increasing the level of patient satisfaction. Reducing variation in bed occupation in common nursing wards could save costs by reducing the amount of required beds and nurse staffing, and increase...

Improving the hospitality of the UMC Utrecht

The aim of this graduation project is to improve the hospitality of the University Medical Centre of Utrecht (UMCU) by developing a product/service system that supports the patient in their personal needs within the entrance area of the hospital. The patient and their experiences are central in this project. The patients’ experience is shaped by...

Wayfinding symbols for the hospital of the future

This thesis is about the design of symbols for the hospital of the future. My design statement was: By focussing on the moment, I want to enable people to forget their worries in a hospital, while finding the right way to their destination intuitively. The set of symbols is based on bringing together intuition and astonishment.

Design of a product for Nurse Call purposes

In hospitals, care homes, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities patients and residents are dependent on the care of the nursing staff. They need to always be able to communicate with a nurse if they need help or when they want something. For these purposes Nurse Call systems and their associated products are used. Currently, patients in...

The urban hospital in the public realm

The design of a highly accessible medical setting what is mixed with urban everyday life, and thus embedded in its context