collaboration – Design for Wellbeing

Digital health technology workshop

Tobias Larsson — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 11:47:47 +0000

A workshop on digital health, with focus on how technology may assist personal wellness was arranged within SICAHT (Swedish Innovation Center for Applied Health Technology) at Hyper Island. Professor Tobias Larsson and entrepreneur Sebastian Sjöberg (QHelf) ran the workshop.

TAGS: BTHcollaboration health professionals qHelf sebastian sjöberg sicaht tobias larsson workshop

Health technology visit at Ricoh in Japan

Tobias Larsson — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 11:50:33 +0000

Associate Professor Sharon Kao-Walter visited RICOH in Tokyo, Japan, in order to get updated on their recent plans for the area of applied health technology. During the visit there also were discussions on the close collaborative mode of operation that exists between academia and companies in Japan.

TAGS: applied health technologyBTH collaboration japan ricoh sharon kao-walter

Primary healthcare innovation goes prototype

Tobias Larsson — Fri, 13 May 2011 10:09:14 +0000

Students within the master program Sustainable Product-Service Innovation (http://www.bth.se/mspi) at Blekinge Institute of Technology has together with a nurse and under the guidance of Tobias Larsson, developed a new generation prototype of a healthcare product.

The product, a leg rest, supports the leg (or arm) while taking care of wounds or other treatment. It releaves the nurse of some lifting and also free up for usage of both arms in caring for the patient.

The patented design has been improved in terms of usability and design and is now in 2nd generation prototype where next step is commercialisation and marketing, where BTH Innovation will be partner in the future endeveours.

BTH students and wellbeing thinking has come to the support of a nurse who desired a solution to a problem that she experinced first hand…

TAGS: BTHcollaboration Healthcare innovation leg rest nursing students technology

Collaboration at its best

Tobias Larsson — Wed, 04 May 2011 06:55:03 +0000

Academic, public and private partners collaborate across boundaries to improve wellbeing.

The Design for Wellbeing initiative is an excellent platform for sustainable development for the future since it targets wellbeing, which is not a specific thing but rather a desired state of being. This creates an excellent opportunity to discuss “what is wellbeing for me, and how do I get there?”. So far, the following university partners have participated; Luleå University of Technology, Stanford University, Lund University, Blekinge Institute of Technology, KTH (Royal Institute of Technology).

Here are some testimonials from our collaborative network

PROFESSOR LARRY LEIFER
Director, Center for Design Research, Stanford University, USA

”The Stanford Center for Design Research creates customer wellbeing through the application of advanced design informatics. Our projectbased-learning courses always engage real outside clients to assure that students deliver wellbeing to real people. Our design research program studies engineers at work to improve the way they deliver innovative solutions. Using advanced design informatics technology enables the global partnerships needed to support our customers and our designers.”

H.F. MACHIEL VAN DER LOOS, PH.D.
Rehabilitation R&D Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, USA

”Our Center is devoted to designing and developing tools, devices, equipment, and information technology to assist people with disabilities, improve their quality of life and fulfill their life goals. The combination of research and design/ development activities, backed by extensive evaluation studies, enlists deep knowledge to create successful advances in rehabilitation and improve the wellbeing of people with disabilities.”

AGNETHA MBUYAMBA
President, The Swedish National Association for Disabled Children and Young People (RBU), Sweden

”Good assistive devices are central to people with disabilities. This is especially true for children and young people who are growing and developing. Good assistive devices for play and leisure are as important as devices for work and school. It might seem obvious that such devices work equally well outside and inside, in winter and in summer, in the city and in the woods — but there is still a great deal of work needed to reach this goal. Design for Wellbeing is an exciting initiative, which RBU actively want to support and participate in.”

PROFESSOR HISATO KOBAYASHI
Faculty of Engineering, Hosei University, Japan

”Hosei University is planning to launch a new institute related to Wellbeing Design in the next year. We are going to do several projects including conceptual design for wellbeing environments and assistive technology for wellbeing.”

TAGS: collaboration