Our team of designers, clinicians, engineers and developers work inside St Mary's Hospital in London.
Helix is a joint collaboration between Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art. Our multi-disciplinary team is uniquely placed on the frontline of healthcare, inside a large London NHS hospital.
Our goal is simple: to address real healthcare problems by translating research into evidence based solutions. We use various design methods to rapidly dissect problems, envisage opportunities and prototype solutions.
Part of Imperial's Institute of Global Health Innovation, our full time staff are organised into two main lines of work:
Helix Lab
Helix Lab is a portfolio of innovations developed within the Centre. The team apply research discoveries — many of which stem from Imperial College London — to the design of new, frugal products and services. We are ruthlessly realistic about the challenges of innovation in healthcare and therefore seek measurable evidence of the impact our interventions can have.
Helix Methods
Helix Methods builds capacity for design-led innovation and aims to educate leaders and teams in the practice of human centred design in healthcare. We created a MSc / MRes in Design in Healthcare co-run by Imperial College London and Royal College of Art, along with various bespoke short-courses to leverage design methods for healthcare service improvement.
Helix Studio
Our award winning studio is the centre point of our team’s work at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. Designed by architecture students from the RCA, our glass “box” is a space for collaborative work with patients, clinicians, designers and visitors.
