About the Project

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)

Activity map- our system innovation model

Activity map- our system innovation model

A Design perspective to "big picture" problems

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.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Stroke and Strategic Design

When we looked at the current system for stroke care, we identified two fundamental problems: It is set up to deliver a standard range of care for individual needs and it does so within a fragmented delivery system that varies by region, city, hospital and physician. All of these fragmented activities occur in separate realms driven by their own internal logics. Strategic design is a critical new perspective for stroke care. Current care improvement efforts focus on policy or on process improvement. Without a strategic component, even excellent tactical approaches may simply make poorly conceived care principles more efficient.

Approach

  • A full care cycle approach to care-innovations (prevention, acute therapy, long-term needs)
  • A systems approach to care delivery, focused on strategic improvements
  • A design-centric approach to problem solving

Objectives
Improved patient outcomes (mortality, morbidity, quality of life) at lower costs

Products
Our work delivered the following

1. A methodology for looking at complex systems
2. A strategic roadmap to improving outcomes at lower costs
3. Defining the “top 10” areas of opportunity for improvement

and we are currently developing

4. Pilots to demonstrate effective improvement
5. A methodology defining the science of implementation

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