Why is Health Care Design so Terrible?
Health care consumers pay a lot of money for bad design. It's time for the device and drug companies to stop. Reports Joyce Lee MD, MPH, Robert P. Kelch MD Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, physician, designer, and researcher.
15 August 2016
| Lacey Glave
|
via
Fast Co.Design
Health care consumers pay a lot of money for bad design. It's time for the device and drug companies to stop.
A regular glass ketchup bottle is a poorly designed experience. To serve the ketchup you have to hold it at a 45-degree angle, tap it in a special place, insert a knife, and then it splatters not only onto your plate but also onto your lap.
Lo and behold the improved design of the squeezable plastic upside down ketchup bottle; the ketchup is right at the opening, it has a valve that doesn’t leak, and it comes out of the bottle faster.
Heinz designed a better ketchup experience, resulting in a product that is easier to use. That in turn has led to product design awards and greater sales.
The unfortunate reality is that this kind of experience design doesn’t often occur in health care. Instead, there is no innovation in product or experience design, just higher prices.
The EpiPen is a prime example of this. As a food allergy mom, I’ve written about the bad design of the EpiPen injection delivery system.
To give the injection, you must pull off the blue cap, but the needle pops out at the opposite end, which is counterintuitive. Users will inadvertently place their fingers over the needle, leading to thousands of unintentional injections of individuals trying to deliver the medication.
The EpiPen is so badly designed that it’s used as a case study of bad medical device design by human factors design professionals.
Unfortunately because of recalls of other allergy medications, there are no other competitor products.
A regular glass ketchup bottle is a poorly designed experience. To serve the ketchup you have to hold it at a 45-degree angle, tap it in a special place, insert a knife, and then it splatters not only onto your plate but also onto your lap.
Lo and behold the improved design of the squeezable plastic upside down ketchup bottle; the ketchup is right at the opening, it has a valve that doesn’t leak, and it comes out of the bottle faster.
Heinz designed a better ketchup experience, resulting in a product that is easier to use. That in turn has led to product design awards and greater sales.
The unfortunate reality is that this kind of experience design doesn’t often occur in health care. Instead, there is no innovation in product or experience design, just higher prices.
The EpiPen is a prime example of this. As a food allergy mom, I’ve written about the bad design of the EpiPen injection delivery system.
To give the injection, you must pull off the blue cap, but the needle pops out at the opposite end, which is counterintuitive. Users will inadvertently place their fingers over the needle, leading to thousands of unintentional injections of individuals trying to deliver the medication.
The EpiPen is so badly designed that it’s used as a case study of bad medical device design by human factors design professionals.
Unfortunately because of recalls of other allergy medications, there are no other competitor products.
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