Eindhoven – Philips Design has used its appearance at Dutch Design Week to imagine what healthcare could look like in 2050.
Presented at the city’s Embassy of Health, Philips has teamed up with students from various universities to imagine scenarios for the future of healthcare. Its resulting research and design concepts were produced using a methodology that encompasses Philips’ different guiding philosophies, potential geological developments and possible future socio-economic paradigms, with the aim of getting visitors to think about emerging futures in healthcare.
The designers behind its Hiber Nation project propose a future in which humans sleep for three months straight to reduce our impact on the environment. In this yearly hibernation, body temperature is kept low and the metabolism is slowed down, causing people to enter what Philips terms Therapeutic Hypothermia.
A second possible future product from Philips, Green Walks, proposes an AI avatar bracelet that gives plants a voice to lure people outside to improve physical and mental wellbeing. For more on how health-conscious consumers are adapting their lifestyle choices to be more measured, explore the Foresight section of Conscious Deceleration.