Co-Designing with Children: Innovating Patient Engagement and Participation in Pediatric Healthcare Design Research with Immersive Technology and Affective Interactions

Designing healthcare environments for young patients from different backgrounds is challenging due to the complex technology-intensive environments, interactions between people, and the diverse needs of hospitalized children from neonates to 21 years of age for supportive age-appropriate environments. Pediatric healthcare facilities have a crucial role in offering supportive healing environments to this vulnerable population. Considering the significant impact of the built environment on patient experience and health outcomes, partnership is important between hospital owners, doctors, nurses, administrators, architects, designers. It is particularly important for patients and family to include their unique and collective perspectives in the design of the healthcare environment. Evidence shows there is currently limited use of participatory research in pediatric health care built environments. This article outlines patient engagement methods in pediatric healthcare design research, along with unique challenges faced by researchers engaging with children in these settings. There is a need for innovation in the way children are meaningfully engaged and involved in research for patient-centered design. Our research explores innovative patient engagement methods and tools such as immersive technology and biometrics towards achieving a supportive pediatric built environment design.