The Living Learning Lab in the Greater Worcester Area and Beyond
With its partners, the Healthcare Delivery Institute at WPI develops, creates, and demonstrates many user-driven innovations in real-life test environments, such as the living lab of Worcester and surrounding communities. Along with strategic relationships with the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) and the Visiting Nurse Associations of New England (VNANE), HDI has collaborated with over 10 healthcare provider organizations across the continuum of care. The result is a living learning lab for healthcare innovation in central Massachusetts centered at HDI at WPI, healthcare graduate programs, thought leadership programs such as symposia and innovation forums, and workforce talent.
A living lab is a research and development concept and accompanying infrastructure that facilitates research and human interaction with, and stimulates the adoption of, innovations by end users. These interactions can be studied in the actual environment of the end user or in an adaptable, controllable environment such as an innovation space. Through HDI, researchers have access to the actual environments of end users across the health continuum, including acute, skilled nursing and rehabilitation, community and residential, home, workplace, and on the go.
