INTERVIEW

SUBJECT: IDZ Member of the Month, September 2025

Project Partner: International Design Center Berlin

The IDZ interviewed Beate Woehrle about her design biography, her inspirations and current projects.

Why is design, in particular, able to relieve the burden on the healthcare industry?
How is it possible to successfully integrate creative skills into the everyday practice of a wide variety of healthcare professionals?
I will demonstrate this process in a practice-oriented manner using concrete examples.

INTERVIEW ADDITIONS

Future Skills – Everyone is talking about future skills, including in the healthcare sector. Almost all of these skills go beyond pure specialist knowledge and focus on various soft skills. For example, self-organisation and interdisciplinary problem-solving skills are essential. All participants must be equipped to manage rapidly changing and increasingly complex situations. The creative process is particularly well suited for this purpose. It is advantageous that healthcare professionals are already very well trained in skills that are important for this process, such as empathy, teamwork and customer orientation.

Time Management – A lack of time is often identified as a challenge when it comes to training employees in creative thinking. However, I consistently observe how much time I save when I use my creativity. As soon as standard procedures are no longer effective, thinking outside the box and looking beyond the horizon becomes crucial to finding solutions. Often, all it takes is a small twist, e.g. switching from medical language to storytelling in a patient consultation, to quickly resolve a stagnation in the recovery process that has often lasted for days. Creative problem-solving skills therefore help to reduce the time patients have to spend in hospital and save on human resources. Not to mention the increased satisfaction of all people involved!

„Creativity in healthcare is much more than just a nice-to-have – it is a real driver of success. Time and again, I experience how creative ideas and impulses open up new perspectives, break down barriers, accelerate processes and energise everyone involved.
Beate Woehrle impressively demonstrates how creativity can be used as a future skill: structured, solution-oriented and at the same time empathetic and practical. Her work clearly shows that creative problem-solving unlocks enormous potential, especially in everyday hospital life – for patients and for staff.“
Gabi Brenner–Lüdemann, Director of Nursing & Director of DPM, University Hospital Zurich

Video: 9:37min
IDZ Member