Technical solution to an age-old problem
Missed or late NHS appointments cost the NHS millions of pounds every year. So one student has decided to use his university course to crack the problem, as Mark Smith explains
Auniversity student has invented a new product which aims to tackle the problem of missed NHS appointments.
Alex Hirst, a Master’s student at Cardiff Metropolitan University’s School of Art and Design (CSAD), says his device helps patients find the right hospital department simply by scanning their appointment letter.
The 32-year-old says missed or late appointments have a knock-on effect on NHS waiting-times, leads to inefficient use of staff and costs the NHS money.
Conversations with outpatients revealed that the phenomenon of missed hospital appointments cannot just be explained by forgetfulness, but is partly caused by patients getting lost on the way to their appointment.
Alex said: “Many hospitals are like the Heath [University of Wales Hospital], they are huge buildings with a very complex layout.
“GPS doesn’t work inside and outpatients have great difficulty finding the right department for their appointment.”
Motivated by a desire to solve problems, Alex thought he might be able to help minimise the number of missed appointments.
The university’s product design course asks its students to co-operate with an industrial partner to tackle an unmet need.
Alex worked closely with the health board at the University Hospital of Wales to develop a technical solution.
“The product is a working prototype to guide patients to where their appointment is.
“It involves an interactive screen with a bespoke website and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).”
Similar to a barcode, RFID provides unique identification for an object.
In this case, patients will arrive at the hospital with the letter giving their appointment details.
They will scan the letter and the interactive screen will bring up the details of where their appointment is. The software then shows them a plan of the hospital and guides them to the appointment.
“It is a technical version of customer service,” he added.
“It has potential to be adapted to any hospital layout and can benefit outpatients, visitors and new staff.”
During his undergraduate fine art degree, Alex worked with reclaimed metal to create a kinetic sculpture.
However, he then worked in advertising before the transition into product design and medical devices.
He said: “That job just wasn’t quite the right fit for me. I decided I wanted to widen my skillset, to get a postgraduate qualification and ultimately to change my profession.
“The MSc Product Design course at Cardiff School of Art and Design has given me the opportunity to completely turn around my career, something not many people my age have the chance to do.
“Initially, I thought I wanted to use the course to do furniture design, but I quickly found that I could make an impact by using more technical product design to solve problems.”
This was confirmed by Alex’s attendance at the Yale Healthcare Hackathon 2017.
With financial support from Cardiff Met and Santander mobility fund, Alex was able to travel to Yale University to compete with 200 other attendees to develop a product to address an unmet need in healthcare.
Alex worked on a project about pollution levels in cities and the impact of this on asthmatic children.
He developed a smart bracelet to communicate key health information to a child’s parents.
The product won the ‘Careers, Life and Yale’ prize.
Alex thrived during his course due to a keen interest in medical device design and the desire to be challenged.
“I found it difficult to switch away from the workplace and back into academia,” he added.
“For the first time since I left uni I had total responsibility for all aspects of the project.
“I am used to project management and delegation, but this was all my own.
“I enjoyed the control I had over it, and the opportunity to see something through from start to finish.
“It is definitely the challenge of solving problems that motivates me.
“The whole process of product design is user experience-led. The course is embedded in the need to speak to people and design something that they can genuinely use; something that will fill an obvious gap in the market.
“I got continual feedback on the product from doctors and patients to ensure that it was user-friendly.”
The product was also tested in CSAD’s Perceptual Experience Lab, which simulates social and environmental conditions to give Alex an idea of how people will interact with the product.
“It was a learning experience. I know I’ve developed through doing the course – I started with very little technical knowledge, but I have now learnt to code and to use CAD [computed-aided design].
“I wanted to benefit lives; to design something that makes people’s lives better. That’s hopefully what I’ve done.”
He said Cardiff School of Art and Design and all of his tutors have really helped him when he needed it.
“It’s because of this course that I have the opportunity to switch career and to stay in the medical device design industry.”
Alex plans to continue designing solutions for the healthcare sector and has secured a job for next year.