Turning medical scans into adventures can ease children’s fears

Erik Kemper, left, and Doug Dietz pose for a portrait on Dec. 22, 2015 at GE Healthcare in Waukesha, Wis. Dietz came up with the idea of transforming MRI and CT scans for children into adventure scenarios, complete with scripts and elaborate decors worth of amusement parks, to lessen children's fear during the scans. One example is a private ship. Another is a spaceship voyage, with the children told to prepare for "hyper-drive" when the MRI gets noisy. Dietz is an the innovation architect global design/Menlo Healthcare Systems and Kemper is lead designer/Global Design Americas. (Mark Hoffman/Milwauke Journal Sentinel/TNS)

The sight of a terrified little girl about to have an MRI scan gave Doug Dietz a different perspective on his work as an industrial designer at GE Healthcare – and led to a project that has turned imaging departments at 27 children’s hospitals in the US into small theme parks.

The idea that eventually emerged from a mix of brainstorming and research – with some persistence thrown in – was to transform a frightening medical test into a voyage on a spaceship, a visit to a pirate island and other adventures.