"Healthcare is a basic human right. However due to the movement of migrants in Europe, aid agencies are struggling to provide that care to a connected, mobile population. With over 65 million displaced people globally, the provision of basic healthcare is a growing challenge. We worked with the United Nations’ migration body, IOM, to concept a future vision of migrant healthcare, using human-centred design.

Providing effective healthcare to migrant populations poses two key challenges: movement and communication. In the European context, many migrants are unwilling to take vital tests due to pressure to keep moving. Displaced patients have no continuous record of care as they engage with different aid agencies and healthcare systems. Furthermore, migrants come from a variety of countries, with different languages, literacy levels, and cultures.

As part of our program we invited leading design colleges to take part in our exploration. Masters-level design students applied from across Europe, North America, South America, China and India, and ten joined us in our Dublin studio for a design-sprint bootcamp. Engaging with the migrant community, we explored needs, shared ideas, and proposed solutions to the challenges.

We explored a digital portal that'd include a cloud-based electronic health record which could be accessed through patient smartphones. This system empowers users to control and share their own health data, communicate it with healthcare professionals through a variety of languages, and allow them to receive test results, even while on the move (resolving many of the issues IOM were facing). This mobile solution can also act as a connection portal for migrants to access remote consultations with doctors and nurses, reducing dependence on national health systems and aiding care professionals to help from wherever they reside. A connected, medication labelling tool for aid workers also helps improve communication and confidence for displaced people.

"Firstly, the approach we took is quite unique. Student designers added a lot to this collaboration, not just because they are particularly concerned about the future of societies within which they will grow into. But also because they bring energy, enthusiasm and fresh ideas to open projects such as this. Our team, working alongside the IOM, then worked to refine those concepts into workable solutions. This approach has been lauded by many both in and outside of the design industry.

Secondly, the theme of this project was all about looking at the current state of aid provisions (which hasn't changed much) and helping the IOM to realise what is ahead of them and provide them with tangible and credible changes for them to make in order to better serve migrants into the future.

The outputs of this collaboration could potentially affect the lives of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people. More than just migrants, the labelling aspect of this project is being earmarked by IOM for submission to the WHO’s Global Health Cluster as a best practice for all major IGOs and NGOs providing emergency health provisions worldwide.

This project introduced IOM Health to Human-Experience Design as a process for problem solving, which they have been excited to explore further internally. In addition, during the G7 Summit in Kobe in 2016, Dr. Davide Mosca, Director of IOM’s Migration Health Division, highlighted this project as an example of public-private partnerships enabling IOM to quickly respond and provide quality healthcare assistance. We are blown away that a small team of UX designers in Ireland could have that kind of effect on a UN body."