ABSTRACT
Global businesses responding to the demographic challenges of an ageing population have not only a vested interested but a moral responsibility in providing products and services that meet the needs of their clients and governmental foresight healthcare and ageing population panels have scoped trends, future scenarios and actions required. The ‘Ideal States’ cluster was formed between individuals in the two fields of design and clinical healthcare, both concerned with people-centric practices and in how to respond to healthcare and quality of life issues associated with an ageing population. Social scientists have investigated the patient’s perspective in healthcare for some years, primarily using qualitative methods but the concept of patient pathways, as a tool for facilitating improved healthcare delivery as a vital part of healthcare reform, appears to be a relatively recent one. Discovering the concept of the patient pathway was serendipitous, resulting in an appreciation of the potential value of pathway maps.
