X Close Icon

Starship X-Ray

Imagination takes flight with a space age response to patient care

The multi-award winning Starship X-ray project includes a colourful and playful interactive redesign of the Radiology Department at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital based on the theme of a journey through outer space. The unit’s main reception and waiting area became the interior of a starship ‘bridge’ with nine adjoining camera rooms themed on the planets of our solar system. This theme was extended throughout the unit to support wayfinding and give the user the sense of being on a spaceship travelling through space to re-imagined planets. Young patients can also discover ‘the Raybots’-small figures created by children and young people using redundant hospital IT tech- who will accompany them on their journey.

Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Radiology Department is a busy 24-hour specialist unit treating approximately 30,000 children a year providing diagnostic services. Within Radiology a team of consultant paediatric radiologists and specialist paediatric radiographers work together using a variety of imaging modalities spread over nine different rooms to produce images to aid diagnosis. The patients can come from within the hospital or via their GP or as a referral from an outside hospital looking to utilize the specialist services. Lead Radiographer Lisa Bintliff and her team wanted to make the clinical environment more child friendly and welcoming, transforming it from a bland beige area into an interactive informative space.

“This is truly an exciting development in the field of enhancing the patient experience

Category Judge-Building Better Healthcare Awards 2014