The work “Stoma Basic Map” designed by Akiho Higano (2nd year, Master course, Graduate School of Integrated Frontier Science), a student of the FY2022 Medicine x Design Project, received the “Encouragement Award for the Joint Symposium 2023 Poster Session of Integrated Institute for Designing Future Society, Kyushu University”.
The Graduate School of Design and the Graduate School of Medical Science of Kyushu University, together with the graduate students of the Graduate School of Design, the Graduate School of Integrated Frontier Sciences, and the Graduate School of Medical Science, are conducting a project to solve and propose solutions to various needs and issues in the medical field with the power of design.
The themes for the 2022 academic year were “Clinical Oncology Surgery (Surgery I)” and “Neurology,” and the students identified issues from each department and made proposals. The “Stoma Basic Map” proposed by the student and the “Clinical Oncology Surgery (Surgery 1)” was designed to address the concerns of ostomates about major changes in their lives before and after surgery and their inability to obtain information that is reliable and matches their needs, as well as to provide basic information specific to before and after surgery. This is a paper-based pamphlet that provides basic information and can be reviewed at any time.
The pamphlet is envisioned to be placed in hospitals and distributed to people who want basic information about stomas before and after surgery. The information contained in the pamphlet was selected from interviews with actual ostomates, and we aimed for an easy-to-understand design that includes many illustrations.
Based on interviews with patients, doctors, and certified nurses, as well as observations of the orthotics used in daily life, this design was created to ensure that (1) basic information is always available before and after surgery, (2) the design is easy to understand so that the applications and actions one needs to take in the future can be easily organized, (3) the design is small enough to carry around in a pocket, and the contents and design of the manual should be accessible not only to patients, but also to their families and other interested parties.
