Driving Innovation in Healthcare Design: The case of an interdisciplinary co-design process for a new rapid virtual diagnostics hub for eyes

The interdisciplinary evidence to support healthcare building is insufficient. New innovation processes are needed that enable clinical, research evidence and practice-based design teams to apply research-informed and evidence based design. This article aims to challenge the basis for prioritizing the reconfiguration of eyecare to respond to patient backlog and develop an innovative di-agnostics hub. Ophthalmology, the busiest NHS outpatient specialty (7.9 million episodes; 2018-19), is perfectly suited to providing a testbed for rapid, research-driven innovation and to show how research in the built environment can better inform clinical and technological advancement. A clinically-led case study is described which reports the approach taken to bring together the de-sign, engineering and modelling expertise of multiple experts in the built environment. Various disciplines contributed to three clinical trials which saw three unique building configurations, which involved 3,000 patients across three iterations of the building layout design. Circa ~ 30 staff were involved in the interdisciplinary co-design process to encourage an innovative approach to equipment configuration, layout design and an emerging scientific evidence-base. There is a significant need to address the methodological, interdisciplinary and theoretical implications of evidence-informed healthcare building. We offer up a conceptualization of an evidence-based co-production process that optimized safety, efficiency of patient movement and staff satisfaction through iterative dialogues.