Recently, the Europe Student Service Design Challenge 2020 came to an end. Han zhengshuang, a student from D&I, and four students from Aalto University, formed a team and stood out from 35 teams by their RO+ service design project, and won the silver medal in the finals of the competition.
The theme of this year is Access to care： "How can we improve the heart health of people in Europe that are ‘invisible’, neglected, underserved, forgotten or overlooked?" The jury awarded the Silver prize to team ‘No Pressure’ (Aalto University in Finland) for: RO+ - a service to ease Roma people’s sickness journey. The service concept creates a hassle-free journey for Roma people. On the platform Roma, healthcare providers and social service workers can access information in one place and coordinate with each other on referrals, appointments and the status of temporary ID. The service can solve Roma’s problems, including language barriers, by simplifying the processes.
Comments of the Organizing Committee
"The team successfully identified an underserved user group in line with the brief and demonstrated a detailed understanding and communication of their experiences and pain points. The storytelling is well done, how the app works and its relevance is well articulated, and the technical solution is properly thought through.
The integration of systems relates to many current health and human services problems and could be scalable across multiple use cases.Even though they focused on a specific community, when discussing access to care and social determinants of health, the solution can be relevant to any under-resourced community with limited access and could be leveraged in multiple areas."
Comments from other judges
“Great research and understanding of the Roma community and their experiences in accessing care in Finland. The solution showed how technology can bring siloed systems and organisations together, removing barriers and empowering people to care for their health.”
——Rosie Martin, Design Principal at IBM
"Very good and well thought solution for an important group with special challenges.”
—— Lucien Engelen, Founding director of the RE shape Center at Radboud University Medical Center
“I believe the potential of this solution lays in adapting the service to different socio-technical contexts and marginalised groups.”
—— Anna Queralt, Engagement manager of the circular design programme at the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation
“We would love to see the prototype being further developed and implemented in real life.”
—— Sean Carney, Chief Design Officer of Philips
“A project that demonstrate show digital technologies can empower the most vulnerable communities. I hope that this work will inspire more designers and organizations around the world to start designing scalable health care solutions starting from those at greater risk of exclusion.”
——Simona Maschi, Co-founder and director of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID)
“The project has the merit to address a highly neglected community in healthcare, with a mobility that challenges the current healthcare system.”
——Roberto Verganti, Professor of Leadership and Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics
