Encouraging DfE in Design Education to promote Sustainable Medical Product Design

Without disputing the importance of eco-design and sustainability in design education, there is little evidence of work specifically targeting sustainable medical solutions. Developing medical devices is complex, financially risky, requires large upfront investment and involves long lead times to market. In global design education today, the rigour and necessary focus on safety and efficacy of medical devices has meant that efforts to minimize environmental impact are often deprioritized or postponed, but increasingly emphasising on providing guidance to firms. This exploratory study aims at understanding how design education affects DfE implementation in the process of designing medical products. 54 healthcare and medical design programs were identified online and analysed based on the information they provide on their websites. The surveys and the following analysis of the data helped highlight some of the problems in design education and open the platform for future work in environmentally conscious design education.