Whether design innovations are glaringly successful, produce discrepant outcomes, fail to achieve intended outcomes or are still being evaluated, the line defining success or failure in design, especially in healthcare design, is iterative, fickle and often difficult to navigate. As such, collaborative, interdisciplinary efforts involving multiple users can serve to inform innovative design solutions that augment healthcare delivery while addressing some of the critical issues facing the healthcare industry.

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This essay argues that although most industrialized countries are now looking at cost-effectiveness analyses as the best way to make rational choices between various medical technologies, such tools do not address the problem at its root. Solving healthcare financial problems requires creating innovations that embody a more thoughtful set of values. Three examples of medical advances (management of low-birth weight babies, stem cell research and in-vitro fertilization) are used to illustrate how their design may reinforce certain values and not others.

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This research challenges the concept of a telehealth stethoscope by raising questions about the ease and confidence with which doctors could use such a device.

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This paper has described research focused on identifying opportunities for generic design improvements to stroke unit outcomes using data collection and analysis tools from a design research toolbox and a user-based perspective on the health service.

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The value of using design approaches in both researching and designing healthcare systems is recognised in various circles, and further demonstrated in this study. These methods are especially useful in contexts where various stakeholders are involved in decision-making and yet aiming towards the same vision of providing safe and efficient care

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Prevalance of diabetes in urban Haryana is less as compared to other Indian states. Also the prevalence of diabetes is higher in females. Prevalence is influenced by age, education, occupation, socioeconomic status and marital status.

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The National Preventative Health Taskforce has set a 30% target reduction in the proportion of risky and high-risk drinkers by 2020. This study estimated the potential saving in deaths, hospitalisations and associated economic cost savings to premature mortality and health of achieving the target.

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Medicon 2010 is an annual flagship medical students' research conference of The Forum for Medical Students' Research (India). This is a conference report of Medicon 2010 hosted at PSGIMSR Coimbatore (India)

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