Reflection 3

Health Design Thinking: Creating Products and Services for Better Health

Authors: Bon Ku and Ellen Lupton

I chose this specific book to help me learn about applying design thinking to healthcare concerns. The book is divided into three parts: the first section describes the design thinking principles of human-centeredness and creativity, the second section describes different design methods and their uses in healthcare, and the third section presents a series of case studies.

I selected this book for a number of reasons. I have found that since taking electives in my PhD program in other NYU schools, I have had fewer opportunities to complete assignments that are closely related to my dissertation topic or even within the realm of healthcare. At the same time, I am the first student in the PhD program who has wanted to use design thinking techniques and design methodologies for a dissertation. Being the first student using this methodological approach, I have encountered resistance and hesitation from faculty who either do not understand design thinking or do not feel that I will have the needed support to conduct a dissertation using a methodology that is not widely used in US-based nursing research. At the same time, I have encountered faculty who have encouraged me to jump into solutions. These faculty believe that, given my work history in the space that I am planning to conduct research in, I have the information needed to proceed into the solutions phase. I hoped that this book would provide me with additional language to bring to conversations with faculty regarding the use of design thinking in healthcare and the importance of the ideation phase to ensure that solutions are human-centered and address the problem as defined by service users.

I was somewhat disappointed that the book reviewed concepts at a surface level, but did not go into detail about particular aspects of design thinking. For example, there was a single page dedicated to describing approaches such as co-design, prototyping, and personas. While these pages were followed by short examples of specific cases, a longer description of the design thinking concepts would have been more beneficial for my reading purposes. The case studies in the third section of the book, while helpful, are examples of localized projects that did not appear to be research studies, but rather quality improvement studies. While research and quality improvement have many overlapping qualities, I would have liked to have seen one case study be presented as a longer, research study. That being said, the book had a number of segments that I was able to glean insights from that I will use as I begin to plan my dissertation next semester.

The first insight is around how important the use of design thinking is to make changes to health service delivery. The book acknowledges that the problems in healthcare are not black and white, and cannot be solved using healthcare’s traditional mindset. In short, healthcare problems cannot be solved with healthcare thinking. As healthcare workers, we are taught to use specific techniques to address specific problems using the existing evidence. Even in research, there are stringent guidelines based on the viewpoints of a few governing bodies that dictate whether a researcher will receive funding for a project. As I look back on the sustained health disparities and poor health outcomes that have endured despite years of research and billions of dollars of investment, I am hopeful that a design thinking approach will enable the generation of solutions that are not just effective, but also human-centered, user-derived, and sustainable.

The second insight that I will take with me into my future work is the importance of storytelling through all aspects of design thinking. In healthcare, outcomes are usually measured with numerical values or the presence or absence of a disease or symptom. In these measures, however, the experiences of people with health and healthcare are lost. We measure someone’s success with cancer treatment as entering into remission, but we often fail to ask about their experiences with treatments, appointments, or countless healthcare providers. The book places an emphasis on the story as not just a tool to gather information keeping human-centered design as the focus, but as a way to communicate the processes and outputs of design thinking to others who may not understand the iterative and creative nature of design thinking.

While I wish the book included more details in the description of applying design thinking to a healthcare context, I took away many ideas and pieces of language that I will use to inspire those around me to see the importance of a human-centered approach to solving healthcare problems.