Design Ideas for Inpatient Stroke Rehabilitation Facilities: Living Lab Findings.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Design
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Optimizing inpatient stroke rehabilitation facilities requires input from diverse stakeholders to meet user needs.
• The Neuroscience Optimized Virtual Environments Living Lab (NOVELL) Redesign project's initial phase focused on co-design for facility improvement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To generate actionable, co-designed ideas for optimizing the built environment and services in inpatient stroke rehabilitation settings.
• To explore innovative design solutions that enhance the learning and practice environment for stroke survivors.

Main Methods:

• Four co-design workshops involving stroke survivors, clinicians, and designers.
• A workshop with a healthcare architecture firm to respond to generated ideas.
• An online prioritization task to rank design outcomes.

Main Results:

• A framework of objectives for stroke rehabilitation environments and services.
• 28 actionable design ideas were developed.
• 10 visionary scenarios for stroke rehabilitation facilities were created and prioritized.
• Key scenarios included adaptable bedrooms, risk-tolerant environments, and therapy spaces promoting real-world practice.

Conclusions:

• Opportunities for innovation exist by synergizing service design and architectural design.
• Interdisciplinary methods within a Living Lab framework successfully generated collaborative and visionary design ideas.
• The study highlights the potential of co-design and speculative futures in healthcare facility planning.