Breaking Through 2022 Finalist

Now in its third installment, Healthcare Design’s Breaking Through is a conceptual design competition that encourages industry members to forget the traditional rules and restrictions of healthcare design to answer the challenges anticipated for the future of healthcare delivery. Four finalists made it to the finale that took place at the 2022 HCD Conference + Expo in San Antonio and presented their concepts to the audience during a keynote session.

Concept: Radius
Team: CRTKL
On-stage representatives: Jim Henry, principal, director of healthcare; Darren Chen, healthcare designer; and Maria Sanchez, senior technology consultant

The premise: By 2030, there will be 133 million people over the age of 50 in the U.S. and 2.1 billion over age 60 worldwide by 2050. Add to that a shortage of 15 million healthcare workers anticipated by 2030, and the industry is facing a severe supply and demand challenge.

Meanwhile, three out of four adults aged 50 and older want to age in place, but homes aren’t currently designed to allow that to happen. Although home health technologies exist, they’re disparate, overwhelming, and often not integrated. Radius sets out to better support the 100-year lifespan.

The concept: Radius leverages technology to remove barriers of at-home care, with the goal of allowing seniors to seamlessly manage the aging process without leaving their residence or relying on in-person care.

To do so, the system integrates technologies to create a “health ecosystem” that includes remote diagnostics, such as smart home technology to analyze environmental and psychological data, while wearable tech gathers and transmits biometric information to provide alerts, track sleep, and monitor fitness.

The ecosystem is then integrated with a fixed central smart spine and a flex module that together create the home health platform.

The details: The central spine is made up of a customizable kit of parts that replaces fixed walls with components that allow residents to change an environment to align with stages of life.

Elements include a delivery zone where drones might drop off medication to a prescription dispensary; vertical gardens to grow food; a viewing space to support virtual care visits and patient monitoring; and an integrated headwall in bedroom areas for connection to medical gases and hard-wired vital monitoring.

Next, the robotic flex module is a smart moving and pivoting wall system controlled via the central spine that allows for customizable configurations of space and uses within the home, supporting everything from family visits to fitness and telehealth appointments.

For more on Healthcare Design’s 2022 Breaking Through competition, read here.