More Than Nicer Furniture for the Waiting Room: Understanding Design as a Health Care Development Resource

Peter Martin, Interim Chair of Graphic Design, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar

Abstract

Design in health care is predominately expected only to provide aesthetic improvements to its products and facilities. However, design methods of research and development has a growing list of providing better patient care and experience, greater staff work collaboration and satisfaction, and even at times lower costs. Driving these achievements have been various practices of “design thinking” that always begin with an intense study of what an existing care process and participation involves. Lorna Ross, director of design, Center for Innovation, at the Mayo Clinic, suggests using design like a diagnostic tool when she states “Design is a great way of studying things. Before you even change anything, design often gives you a unique lens on something.” Design thinking always follows this explorative phase with a set of generative methods oriented towards creating an integrative and appreciative response to improve the situation at hand.

This workshop aims to provide healthcare professionals with an overview of how design can be a resource to catalyze their expertise, empathy, and creativity into to an innovative process of building capacity in the healthcare they provide. The workshop will first introduce healthcare professionals to some of the accomplishments design thinking has achieved within healthcare through the review of some applied cases. Then the participants will be introduced to various principles, processes and participation frameworks of design thinking initiatives. In conclusion, the workshop will introduce some basic design thinking methods to begin facilitating a process for participants to examine their organization’s services and operations with design thinking methods to identify innovation opportunities in the areas such as information design and exchange, workflow organization, collaboration points, communication content and approaches, patient and family experiences, and patient pre- and post-visit behaviors and resources.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Recognize the potential for design thinking oriented initiatives to be instrumental in building capacity within their healthcare organization and facility.
2. Identify specific examples of how design thinking has been used as a key resourc­­e to innovate quality healthcare processes, environments, and experiences.
3. Analyze their healthcare organization and facility to identify potential areas of innovation.
4. Present an informed and supported perspective to their colleagues and supervisors regarding the potential of applying design thinking processes within their organization as an approach to building capacity for better quality health care.

Workshop Outline

Number of participants: 20
Target Audience: The content of this workshop has been developed to benefit professionals and staff who are currently involved in providing health care services to the general public.

Time	Topic
9:00am – 9:15am	Part 1: Establishing a Scope of Relevance An introduction of the participants for all to gain a sense of the scope of experiences and interests involved in the workshop
9:15am – 9:45am	Part 2: Evidence of the Potential for Design to Improve Health Care A review of three examples of how design thinking has been used to investigate an existing health care service situation and developed an innovative improvement
9:45am – 10:15am	Part 3: Design Thinking: Its Principles, Processes, and Participation An acknowledgment of the myths of “what designers do” Introduction to the principles of design thinking
10:15am – 10:30am	Coffee Break
10:30am – 11:00am	An introduction to various research and development methods of design thinking and how they can be organized into an innovation process involving many stakeholders.
11:00am – 12:00pm	Part 4: Potential for Design to Build Capacity in Your Organization A guided mapping exercise of a service process and its stakeholders as it occurs with the participant’s organization A guided review of these mappings to identify potential areas of innovation A guided discussion of how to begin pursuing some of these identified potentials for innovation