The first Master in Design for Health is born

In the context of the conference, the first Italian inter-university Master's degree course in Design for Health, entitled Human-Centred Design for innovation and competitiveness in the made-in-Italy health supply chain, was also presented. Promoted by the HCD-Care Inter-University Centre and the Symbola Foundation, together with Confindustria Dispositivi Medici, Farmindustria and Deloitte, the Master's Course will start in 2026 and will involve, together with the main trade associations, companies from the medical, pharmaceutical and biotech sectors and, in addition, design studios that have been active for some time in the field of design for care and assistance. It is mainly, but not exclusively, aimed at graduates in Design, Architecture, Management Engineering, Automation Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Communication.

The master's course will offer a path of excellence that will train designers capable of operating with specific skills, contributing concretely to the innovation and development of public and private enterprises operating in the health and care sectors. The relationship between design and health supply chains is becoming increasingly strategic. Indeed, design can make a decisive contribution to the innovation of products, processes and business models, strengthening the competitive capacity of companies in the sector. This is not an abstract potential, but a phenomenon that is already taking place: where design is integrated into business processes, companies show better performance, just as it has been happening for years in many other Made in Italy supply chains.

"HCD-Care is the first Italian research centre dedicated to Design for the health sector, born on the basis of the experiences gained over the years within the five afferent Universities," said Francesca Tosi, director of the inter-university centre. "In this sector, which is constantly growing today, design represents a strategic factor of innovation and development both in the field of research and industrial production. The methods and tools of design, and in particular the Human-Centred Design and Design Thinking approaches, make it possible to respond with appropriate and innovative solutions to the real needs and expectations of healthcare workers, patients and their families in the various fields of intervention: from the design of medical devices and machinery for diagnosis and therapy, to robotics and wearable devices, from furnishings and services for home care, to communication tools and interfaces'.

"Italy is one of the main design capitals in the world, first in Europe in terms of turnover and employees in the sector," added Domenico Sturabotti, director of the Symbola Foundation. "Today, more than ever, design can create a bridge between new technologies, health and people's wellbeing, but it can also represent a tool for the country and the industrial health supply chains to increase the quality of products and services and accelerate the competitiveness of companies.

"The contribution of designers to the competitiveness of companies in the health industrial supply chain implies that the designer has a set of multidisciplinary skills - in particular related to the economic-financial sphere and to company processes, procedures and control systems - that are not typical of the designer's own specialised training curricula," said Ernesto Lanzillo, Deloitte Private Leader Italy. For this reason, Deloitte believes it can make a contribution to the designer's training in relation to that baggage of corporate skills that allows the designer to interact with interlocutors who are unfamiliar to him, but from whom he cannot disregard in order to optimise his impact on the sustainable strategic development of the company in which he works'.

"The pharmaceutical industry has always been one of the excellences of Made in Italy: with a production of 56 billion euro in 2024, a steadily growing export (54 billion in 2024)," said Giovanna Pescatore, Technical-Scientific Director of Farmindustria and member of the Master's Degree Course Steering Committee, "and solid investments in research and production, amounting to 4 billion last year, it represents a strategic driver for the country. Innovation is the driver that drives the sector and allows our companies to respond to health needs and remain globally competitive'. Innovation also and above all means investing in skills, which are a competitive factor for Italy. Professionals are needed who are able to evolve in step with new technologies, with the increasing digitalisation in R&D, in production, in the interaction with health workers and patients, up to product design, which aims to facilitate the management of the care pathway by the patient.

"We strongly believe in this project, which demonstrates how the integration of different disciplines can foster innovation and improve the usability of medical devices, while increasing the quality and safety of technologies," said Livio Zingarelli, vice-president with responsibility for human capital at Confindustria Dispositivi Medici and member of the Master's programme steering committee. "Companies in the sector have a growing need for professionals capable of working in interdisciplinary teams and supporting end-to-end innovation processes, from research to industrial design and post-market. This means being able to integrate technical, regulatory and risk management skills with the ability to analyse healthcare behaviours and flows, as well as co-design with patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals, while maintaining a strong focus on sustainability and accessibility aspects. In this scenario, design is no longer an accessory competence, but becomes a strategic asset for the competitiveness of our companies'.