Academic Awards 2025 booklet

57 Designing Equitable Healthcare: how do we design for women’s health? Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among women, yet their symptoms are often dismissed, misunderstood, or misdiagnosed due to a systemic neglect of women's health needs. Women are underrepresented in clinical research and tools are primarily designed around the male body. This leads to delayed diagnoses, inadequate treatment, and higher mortality rates, reflecting a broader societal issue with deep economic and emotional costs. Addressing this inequity is essential to improve healthcare and clinical outcomes for millions of women. For my Final Master Project in Industrial Design, I explored how feminist design approaches can reshape clinical practice to better serve women with cardiovasculair diseases. In collaboration with Catharina Ziekenhuis Eindhoven, I developed a design framework using ecosystem mapping, care pathway design, and service blueprints. These tools enabled multidisciplinary teams of designers and healthcare professionals to co-create more equitable care processes. Through workshops and applied implementation, I introduced visual tools and integrated them into hospital practice, such as redesigning care pathways for cardiovascular patients and enhancing information for women in remote monitoring. This work demonstrates how designing for women’s health can drive innovation and equity in clinical practice, directly impacting women’s lives and change how we deliver healthcare. Metroline Heart failure Patient information Technology Alternative voices In the hospital Home monitoring Self-management Follow-up Knowledge Design insights Care Pathway - Women with Heart Failure • Technology can contribute to equitable accesstogender-specific information about heart health. • Remote monitoring must be personalized (i.e.based on gender, race, ethnicity orability). • Giving patients access to carepathway visuals promotes faircommunication, betterunderstanding,and transparency in theircare process. • Visual care pathways promotehealth literacy and knowledge sharing. • Women’shealth isseenasalternative knowledge and not implemented in emerging technologies . • Research is starting to be funded,but is rarely implemented inpractice . • Care should extend outside hospital walls and meaningfully supportwomen intheir day-to-day life . • Hospitals must committo innovating forwomen’shealth. • Networked-care reduceshealthdisparities by addressing gender-specific factors forcare. • Collaborations with women’s care networks leverages data-driven insights to better understand and address the unique challenges and trends in women with heart failure. Networked-care • Heart life clinics • Voices forwomen • H3 network Voice women’s real-lived experiences Equitable & visual communication Reflect, learn,build and implement innovations Value marginalized forms of knowledge Measure gender-specific cardiac markers Enhance self-management skills Continue online edcuation Funding gender-sensitive technologies Gender-sensitive diagnosis Patient leaflets Women’s heart health Different signs Different diagnosis Different treatment Women’s cardiac rehab Blood test Blood test Physical Mental Emotional Referral Online education 3x 3x Hospital admission Patient referral Start home monitoring Blood tests + consult Evaluation + consult Interventions ECG,TTE + consult Blood tests + consult Evaluation Referral GP Exacerbation Consult Phone consult Only staff involved Transfer Day 1 Week 1 Month 2 Year1