Stuff Patients Want

Where groups of patients come together to identify healthcare experiences they find frustrating, and to lead the design of solutions they themselves would want to use. Stuff Patients Want is organized by OpenLab, a design and innovation shop located at Toronto General Hospital. OpenLab’s mission is to find creative solutions that transform the way healthcare is delivered and experienced. Stuff Patients Want was inspired by a recent project in which OpenLab worked with patients and their family to explore ways to improve the experience after being discharged from hospital. This ultimately led to the design of a patient-­‐ oriented discharge summary (PODS), a simple, yet powerful tool that allows patients to consistently get from hospital staff the five key pieces of information they need in order to manage their health after going home. PODS is freely available for everyone to use, and is now part of the formal discharge process at several Toronto-­‐area hospitals (see Appendix). Patients are experts in how they experience an illness, a set of life circumstances, the care they receive or the health system with which they interact. Stuff Patients Want is designed to tap into this expertise to come up with practical and inspired solutions. It goes beyond traditional “patient engagement” or simply listening to what patients have to say; it gives patients the tools to lead the design process themselves.