Minima Design Director Nick Field recently spoke at the Infection Prevention Society 09 conference in Harrogate. Having been involved in a number of product developments targeting healthcare associated infection prevention, he shared some of the processes and thinking behind new design innovation in this area.

Using the Vernacare porters chair design as a case study, the talk highlighted the valuable contribution that healthcare professionals can offer in assisting effective product development of medical products. It is important that designers and infection control professionals work together as closely as possible to create better designs.

As infection prevention becomes a higher priority in the specification of healthcare equipment as well as products for use in public places it can provide a new spark of inspiration to create new innovation breakthroughs.