Healthcare is a major industry, but we know little about the involvement of design researchers in this field. We report the results of a focused mapping review and synthesis (FMRS) of healthcare design research. We systematically reviewed six leading design journals to map the contributions to date of the design research community in healthcare. A search of the Web of Science yielded 75 articles, of which 44 were ultimately selected for analysis. We extracted data on article characteristics, design research topics and healthcare-related themes to map the current state of design research applied to healthcare. We discuss the main patterns that emerge from this review, including a focus on products and hospital settings, a disregard for prevention, a strong commitment to stakeholder engagement, or a focus on the early stages of design. We lay out perspectives for future research and discuss the biases potentially incurred by the FMRS methodology.