"The status quo for healthcare is unacceptable." This is one of the first statements you'll read when you visit the Mayo Clinic's Center for Innovation site. And it's not just lip service being paid to a popularly held talking point. Perusing the site, you can tell they actually mean it. They say, "the center's goal is to transform the experience and delivery of health care and to foster a culture of competency and innovation." The Center is "like a giant incubator, it offers a unique space within Mayo Clinic for nurturing new ideas, enabling them to grow, mature and evolve until they are ready for patients."

And the Center for Innovation doesn't just keep this passion within their walls. Instead, they're spreading this conviction, inviting others to accept the challenge - the challenge of going beyond the status quo. 

During Transform 2012, which will take place Sept. 9-11 at the Mayo Clinic Civic Center, the Center for Innovation will host a diverse group of attendees and presenters representing a myriad of professions and industries - all with one goal: to transform the future of healthcare. With a schedule packed with thought-provoking topics, attendees will walk away inspired, ready to innovate and transform the future of healthcare. 

Topics include:
o Human-Centered Design to Drive Innovation
o Science Sunday: Breakthrough Innovation at Mayo Clinic
o Closer than we think: Restoring Well-Being
o Connecting for Change

Margaret Alrutz, Nurture's Director of Strategic Marketing and Experience Design, will be among those inspiring innovation. Speaking on the topic, "Designing Ahead of the Problem," Margaret will merge Nurture's commitment to human-centered design and the future of healthcare with today's healthcare challenges. And with her strong background in human-centered design as well as serving as part of the original research team that led to the founding of Nurture by Steelcase, we're sure the audience will be moved. 

Learn more about Transform 2012 
 

Judging is now underway for the Nurture Collegiate Healthcare Design Competition - a partnership developed and executed by Nurture, The Center for Health Design and Vendome Group (publishers of HealthCare Design Magazine and HERD Journal).

This is the second year of this unique opportunity for students to participate in a conceptual healthcare design competition - developed to engage future healthcare architects and designers and to encourage them to use an evidence-based design process in their work. 

The competition is open to design students at any level in their college or university careers. Upper level and graduate students are encouraged to compete. This year, the competition has 16 entries from teams at the following universities:
o University of Kansas (4)
o Texas Tech (2)
o Kansas State (1)
o Iowa State (3)
o Savannah College of Art & Design (1)
o University of Wisconsin, Madison (1)
o Virginia Commonwealth University (1)
o New York School of Interior Design (2)
o Kendall College of Art & Design (1)

The winning entrant will receive an awards package which includes:
o Complimentary registrations to the HEALTHCAREDESIGN.12 Conference, November 3-6 in Phoenix, Arizona.
o A private reception /roundtable discussion at the conference with top industry experts
o Financial assistance to facilitate conference travel and accommodation costs

The theme for this year's Nurture Collegiate Healthcare Design Competition is "Supporting Mobile Work in Healthcare." Today's team-based care models require greater collaboration - augmented by new technology like laptops, tablets and other devices that are dramatically affecting the mobile work of clinicians. Nurses, physicians and other clinicians are doing work anywhere and everywhere throughout clinical spaces in daily interactions with patients and in collaboration with colleagues. Technology, tangible objects and space design are all critical factors in supporting clinicians "in motion."

The winning team will be announced in September - stay tuned!