The educational programme consists of the following:

- thematic design workshops

- two series of seminars

- presentation of case studies

- internships

- final theses projects

All the courses and seminars will be held in English and require texts to be read in English.

In order to make the programme take root, great importance is placed on the collaboration with medical operators and institutions (above all with the Healthcare Agency Ulss 12 of Venice). Such collaboration involves identifying project and design themes, participating in educational activities geared at specialized work, and gathering material and information.

Thematic design workshops

Each of the four thematic workshops consists of a design activity conducted by students and guided by a faculty teacher and workshop coordinator. The four workshops together are structured so as to train and educate students to be well-rounded professionals capable of managing even complex healthcare projects in all phases and aspects.

Following is a description of the thematic design workshops:

1. Medical product design workshop

In the design of medical products focus is placed on the intermediation that products create among medical staff and patients. In other words, the design objective is to heighten a product's functional value, its operative effectiveness and performance, as well as its safety and simplicity when used by medical professionals and staff, while always keeping in mind the delicate physical, psychological and general conditions of the patient. Each year attention is given to the design of products used in a specific department or service selected together with the entity or institution in consideration.

2. Interior design of healthcare buildings workshop

An extremely important condition for good healthcare service is high quality micro-environments - or living spaces - of hospitals and medical facilities (day hospitals, patient rooms, waiting rooms, and visitor rooms, etc...). This module deals precisely with these problems. Specific attention is placed on the design of furnishings and equipment used in a micro-environment, as well as on how they relate to the physical, functional and perceptive aspects of the architectural space. The module will include seminars regarding "Principles of healthcare buildings construction" and "Colours in healthcare environments".

3. Medical information design workshop

The projects of the module medical information design involve essentially two topics. The first concerns the orientation and information systems within hospital structures, and the second concerns the communicative interface of medical products and equipment. The importance of the communicative aspects in both cases is heightened by the widespread dissemination of digital technologies in the field, as well as by the structural and functional complexity of much of the equipment for analysis, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. Examples of projects conducted in this module are: sign systems, orientation and flow management; graphic communicative interface of medical products and equipment; design of public-targeted information; design of equipment maintenance systems and manuals; graphic design of interfaces for diagnostic imaging equipment. The module will include one workshop on "Pictograms and user instructions" and seminars regarding "Principles of medical interaction design", "Computerisation of diagnostic imaging”.

4. Product planning and service design workshop

This module centres on the design of a specific department or health care service (surgery wards, intensive therapy, neonatology, nuclear medicine, prevention and diagnostic services, management of the life-cycle of hospital medicines, etc.). Once a department or healthcare service has been chosen, and under the guidance of teaching staff, students proceed in designing a system of products that will help characterize and increase effectiveness of healthcare services, the work of medical employees, and the organisation of the healthcare structure. The product system will be designed by taking into consideration its entire life-cycle: from the assessment of technical aspects for acquiring products already on the market and for designing new products, to the compatibility with technological networks; to the physical, functional and operative relations among the various elements of the product system; to phases of utilization, maintenance and repair; and to the management of product end-life. The module will include seminars regarding "E-health technologies" and "Smart technologies, home assistance and telemedicine".

Series of Seminars

The design activities of each module are accompanied by and integrated with seminars concerning design themes, which are held by head physicians of hospital departments and directors of healthcare services, as well as by technicians and designers with ample experience in universities or in research centres.

The following two series of seminars are planned:

1. Medical cultures

These seminars are intended to provide to the master students a historical framework and theoretical points of view. Planned are seminars on: "Organization of the regional healthcare system", "Medical design history", "Healthcare anthropology", "History of the medical iconography", and "Methods and decision making in medical design".

2. Assessment criteria and protocols for the medical equipments

These seminars are systematically dealing with issues concerning the analysis and assessment of medical products, equipments, devices, and product systems. The point of view of the users (patients, physicians, technicians) will be privileged in all the phases of the life cycle (from procurement, to the acceptance, the installation, the use, the maintenance, and the management of the end of life). Seminars are planned on: "Analysis, assessment and medical design", "Classification of medical devices", "Technical norms regarding medical devices", "Life cycle of medical equipments", "Assessment criteria used by international organisations", "Assessment of human factors", "Assessment methodologies of cognitive ergonomics", "Protocols for the environmental assessment of medical instruments and equipments", and "Protocols for validating the safety and usability of medical instruments and equipments".

Presentation of case studies

Exemplary experiences at the national and international level, such as projects of hospitals , equipments, information systems, services, will be presented to master students by the authors and the users.

Internships and final thesis project

The final thesis project consists in the development, in-depth analysis, and formalization of one of the themes presented in the thematic design workshops. The thesis topic should be chosen and developed in agreement with faculty staff, and with necessary verifications by an external structure outside the University (hospitals, healthcare facilities, research centres, firms producing medical instruments and devices, companies producing healthcare equipment and furnishings, etc…). Thesis projects are followed by a faculty coordinator from the relative design workshop.

Optional courses

Additional courses may be organised upon need (for example, courses on software use, 2-D and 3-D representational tools, basics in graphic and typographical design) in order to supplement the basic knowledge of students. These courses form, with respect to the educational programme of the master, an added service and intend to optimize learning by rendering as homogenous as possible the basic knowledge and background of the different students. Thus, attendance is not obligatory for these optional courses and enrolment fees must be paid separately.

Single workshops

Students (max. 5) may enrol in single thematic design workshops and related courses or seminars.

Students who attend a single workshop may also earn credits through participating in internships and developing a final thesis project, with the assistance of a teaching professor in charge of the workshop.