APPLYING DESIGN TO OUR SYSTEMS OF CARE
Stroke Pathways is an two-phased research project to improve stroke outcomes by taking a system design approach to health care delivery. The project was conducted at the Harvard Design School during 2005-2008, under the leadership of Professor Marco Steinberg. The Strategic Design phase produced three distinct bodies of knowledge:
1. A methodology for looking at complex systems
2. A comprehensive & strategic roadmap to better outcomes at lower costs
3. Identify and defining the "top 10" opportunities for improvement
In the process we've developed:
a "zero footprint" organizational model to collaborate across institutions and specialties
a "strategic design" framework to create change opportunities
a "system change" innovation model (outlined in our activity map below)
A NEED FOR SYSTEM DESIGN
Our society has been served well by deep and narrow specialties, but the nature of today’s “big picture” challenges fall at the intersection of what we know. Not unlike cooking, the solution today is not in any one ingredient, but in the mix.
Because key decision makers cannot always see a complete synthetic whole, they are often blind-sided by the unintended consequences of their action. As an integrative discipline, design is uniquely position to fill this strategic need.
Our work leveraged our unique skill-set to: Ask questions at different scales, because different scales provide unique insights; Examine problems in different contexts and from different perspectives, to understand their relative value; Involve stake holders and make our project their project; Create frameworks to integrate complex, and frequently contradictory, problems; Visually represent complex, multidimensional issues to enable a productive problem-framing; Bring to bear our ability to work with indeterminacy and relative precision.
Rather than provide good solutions to the wrong problems, our strength lies in asking the right questions.
Our system design approach looked at stroke from a full care cycle perspective. We defined this into three distinct but interrelated phases:
PHASE II COLLABORATORS
Stroke Care Pilot
Diagnostic Tool
Adam Yock (
Esko Aho President, Finnish Innovation Fund; Former Prime Minister of
Emilio Bizzi Institute Professor, Brain Sciences, MIT
David Cutler Professor, Economics, Harvard Univeristy
Joe Hogan CEO, GE Healthcare
Michael Porter Institute Professor,
Darrel Rhea CEO, Cheskin
Charles Sanders Director, Genentech; Former CEO of Glaxo
Donna Shalala President,