Co-design in acute care is challenged by the inability of unwell patients to participate in the process and the often transient nature of acute care. We undertook a rapid review of the literature on co-design, co-production and co-creation of solutions for acute care that were developed with patients. We found limited little evidence for co-design methods in acute care. We adapted a novel design driven method (BASE methodology) that creates stakeholder groups through epistemological criteria for the rapid development of interventions for acute care. We demonstrated feasibility of the methodology in two case studies: A mHealth application with checklists for patients undergoing treatment for cancer and a patient held record for self-clerking on admission to hospital.