Human Centered Innovation Bootcamp

11 delegates from the health and social care sector benefited from a continuous training combining study visits and workshops led by designers. The aim of these workshops was to introduce French professionals to design thinking.

At Gerond'If-Gerontological Pole of Île-de-France, participants discovered a mobile living lab, which brings new technologies directly to the heart of the facilities to allow the elderly to test social robots or virtual reality glasses before deciding to acquire them. Isabelle Dufour, representing the association, insisted on the importance of clinical research to evaluate new technologies in an operational way. The team of the Laboratory of Reception and Hospitality GHU Paris Psychiatry and Neurosciences presented its innovative activities. Its team of designers is working to create a new hospital culture by focusing on the needs of patients and caregivers. A first workshop was dedicated to the empathic observation phase that characterizes design-inspired project approaches.

On May 11, the delegates visited the "Accélérateur 21" of the French Red Cross. They discovered a structure dedicated to innovation in the health and social care sector and its startup support activities. The Red Cross' pioneering intrapreneurship program helps volunteers and professionals develop their own initiatives and supports their implementation. In the afternoon, the participants met with members of the Patient Experience team at Foch Hospital, who presented all the projects being carried out internally, including the new ambulatory surgery service and the transversal ecosystem developed by the IT department. The second workshop was dedicated to the ideation phase of design thinking: to bring out as many ideas as possible to get off the beaten track.

The last day of the program was dedicated to various innovative activities of the Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris: the Carte blanche program for home hospitalization is an intrapreneurship project that engages professionals and caregivers in solving daily problems. Operational and committed, this initiative creates a positive and stimulating dynamic within the teams spread out in the Paris region. The Care Lab at the Pitié Salpétrière Brain Institute encourages innovation by creating bridges between professionals, researchers, and entrepreneurs. Finally, a visit to the Fab Lab Héphaïstos at the Bicêtre hospital allowed delegates to explore a low-tech approach to solving everyday problems. A practical phase was at the heart of the third workshop, with the testing of different machines: 3D printer, automatic embroidery machine...

This learning mission proved, if proof were needed, that it is not necessary to travel far to be inspired and discover innovative practices and organizations.