Who we are

Our approach

We operate at the fusion point of the human and the technological.

Embedded in RMIT University’s social innovation cluster, and anchor funded by Cisco Systems, the Health Transformation Lab will be the go-to place for action-oriented insight, stimulation, education, collaboration and initiatives.

It will be a place to think, act, share and learn currently missing from the national health transformation scene. It’s where we’ll bring together design, systems thinking, technology and communication process transformation to reshape health — right now.

Our services

With a particular focus on ecosystems, collaboration
and impact, the Health Transformation Lab:

Creates new communities

Fosters networks and creates platforms (physical and virtual) linking hospitals, health technologists, clinicians, innovators and policymakers to showcase, share and collaborate to solve the most challenging, multifaceted problems of health system transformation, delivered through roundtables, seminars, executive masterclasses and innovation programming.

Generates new insights

Generates new insights in the gaps of existing practice – leveraging design, systems thinking and innovation – to create new strategic perspectives, new evidence-bases for action and new action-focused discussions in those areas on our periphery of our consideration, but which keep us up at night.

Implement new actions

Undertakes applied innovation and design projects with healthcare providers, corporates, hospitals, policy agencies and others at the cutting edge of health system reform. Be it projects in information and experience, process transformation and virtualised care, the ethics of analysis or the public policy action of health equity, the Lab can help.

Working with:

THE HTL TREATMENT

The Health Transformation Lab uses a hybridity
of methodologies including human centred design, anthropology
and phenomenological approaches.

Observations gleaned from deep hanging out may typically end up being the most poignant insights of an organisation’s reality.

Each health problem is unique and we curate the best methodologies to elicit insights that are actionable, build communities and lead to innovative change.

From large gatherings to small design jams, from individual work to one on one exploration, the problem ecosystem is explored, problem custodians collide with solution custodians creating new ways forward.

The term Deep Hanging Out was coined by anthropologist Clifford Geertz in 1998 to describe the anthropological research method of immersing oneself in a cultural, group or social experience on an informal level.

In contrast to current human centred design practices of conducting short interviews with subjects or observing behaviour, deep hanging out is a form of participatory observation in which the designer is physically or virtually present in a group for extended periods of time or for long informal sessions.