TOPICS
CREATIVITY
CITIZEN DESIGN
HEALTH SERVICES
DESIGN RESEARCH

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Design, as a discipline, aims to qualify and facilitate people's lives, although in a reductive way it is usually associated only with the quality and / or style of the products. Design perceives problems differently through a global view of the culture, contexts, personal experiences and processes in people's lives, thereby identifying barriers and generating alternatives to overcome them.

As a contribution to promoting health, we have listed 5 design “added value” for hospital ecosystem innovation:

1. Maping the ecosystem to minimize failures and enhance opportunities

We understand that for the system to function fully, all of its members need to know clearly their roles in the process, in order to work together in harmony. Therefore, any noise, indecision or hindrance can influence and slow down this process, so the flow of actions and information must be well orchestrated. This interactive system therefore needs constant attention, renewal and innovation for positive performance, concrete results and effective and quality service delivery.

The “added value” of design in this context lies in the mapping of these interaction streams. Design’s external look helps to understand where failures and opportunities reside, in order to facilitate and ensure the complete course of communication and, consequently, full collaboration.

2. Systems complexity is viewed by design as an opportunity to “do differently”

Regardless of any solution, complex problems are best solved if one moves forward with an open mind, without preconceptions or resistances. Thus, there is greater openness to understand new perspectives and turn a problem into opportunities.

Design works through co-creation to facilitate innovation processes and foster collaboration and experimentation, to understand problems in depth and foster free creativity, before even defining the most appropriate intervention for the different levels of this complex ecosystem.

Thus, the “added value” of design lies in facilitating and streamlining processes of various kinds such as the adoption of new technologies by medical teams, the management of change processes, or the alignment and motivation of teams through methodological and technical tools, focused on people.

3. Optimize the resources and people needed to maintain or raise the quality level

Systems are known to articulate financial, technical and human resources to maintain sustainability in the business. In addition, it is well known that there is a high budgetary pressure under which hospitals and health workers work. Thus, it is necessary to rethink and reorganize the structures and human resources in order to avoid impact on the quality of service provided. Optimizing resources requires a joint vision of short-, medium-and long-term planning rather than an immediate and lonely stance.

In this case, the “added value” lies in design-driven strategies, which involve stakeholders in the development of solutions and resource dynamics, in an integrated manner. This process manages to allocate, distribute and minimize the risk of business failure by ensuring the continuation and success of organizations, as well as considerably raising the quality of provided services.

4. Create environments and products that positively impact health care

A trend directly linked to the hospital context is the humanization of health promoting services and environments. Humanization holds the patient as the center of attention, based on the knowledge that the quality of the environment influences the patient in a physical and psychological way, thus interfering in his healing process. We understand that each person has different evaluations of a situation, and often this appreciation occurs even before they have direct contact with the provided services. Also, it can be initiated in many ways and at any time. Therefore, it is important to study the stages of the journey and to note when a positive influence can contribute to a meaningful experience.

Design's “added value” is in proposing and promoting meaningful experiences around people's well-being in the hospital ecosystem, particularly with regard to comfort, circulation and flow in physical environments. Arkansas Children's Hospital [1] is exemplary in this respect, with a multidisciplinary team that includes designers to think about how hospital design can contribute to healing patients.

On another level of this ecosystem, design can create, evaluate and enhance internal and external services from the point of view of patients and healthcare professionals to reduce failures, maximize performance and bring people together. E Healthcare, for example, has rethought the negative experience of imaging exams in children, and, through design thinking, created the GE Adventure Series [2].

5. New perspectives on service delivery, the power to look from the outside-in

In service providing, the assumed principle is to guarantee the effectiveness, efficiency, accessibility and competence of a given service, from an inside-out perspective. But there is one factor that often profoundly affects the relationship between the service and the user: acceptability.

This is an opposite perspective from the outside, based on the satisfaction of the recipient. There are quantitative means of understanding the quality of service delivery, but the data provides only a snapshot of reality.

Design's “added value” is in its proximity to people, capturing users' vision and realizing their real needs, contributing to the awareness and consciousness of all involved in this ecosystem, regarding the importance of qualifying the services provided, facilitating communication between patients and teams, harmonize and humanize actions and, especially, bring people together so that in collaboration they can promote health and keep this ecosystem ALIVE!

[1] <http://amppob.com/designing-for-health/>
[2]<http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com/from-terrifying-to-terrific-creative-journey-of-the-adventure-series/>