The idea of using design leadership for the healthcare ecosystem is likely a non starter for those who inhabit this space.
But this is the most appropriate tool kit to bring to a system that does not work as a system.
A patient with severe facial pain from trigeminal neuralgia does not get a call back from the neurosurgeon for 8 months and then the doctor won’t see the patient until he has a MRI. The MRI is now booked for 5 months out. As I said, it is a non system. It does not work.
So what is needed is what Bruce Mau describes as MASSIVE CHANGE.
Bruce Mau, the author of MC24, outlines his approach to using design for change. As Bruce notes, government has never used design but uses a process that is hundreds of years old.
So with the healthcare system unravelling under the shocks of COVID, it might be the time for the healthcare leaders to invite designers into the conversation.
If we care about healing the healthcare ecosystem and advocating for patients, then we have to add DESIGN as a tool kit.
We need to visualize the future and it has to be life centred with the patient in the centre of the healthcare ecosystem.
That is the challenge for our healthcare leaders. And there is some urgency at this time.
Raymond Rupert patient advocate and healthcare consultant.