Engineering value-effective healthcare solutions : a systems design perspective

Patou, François and Maier, Anja; Maier, Anja and Škec, Stanko and Kim, Harrison and Kokkolaras, Michael and Oehmen, Josef and Fadel, Georges and Salustri, Filippo and Van der Loos, Mike, eds. (2017) Engineering value-effective healthcare solutions : a systems design perspective. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED17), Vol. 3. Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design . The Design Society, CAN, pp. 31-40. ISBN 9781904670919 (https://www.designsociety.org/publication/39608/En...)

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Abstract

Our modern healthcare systems commonly face an important dilemma. While they depend on innovation to provide continuously greater healthcare value, they also struggle financially with the burden of adopting a continuous flow of new products and services. Although several disruptive healthcare models, i.e. decentralised, personalised, pervasive, connected, and stratified, promise to relieve some of this tension, they do not per se guarantee optimal value generation. We argue that systems thinking and engineering design can remedy this limitation. We support this claim by making the case of Design for Evolvability and by elaborating on two examples: MRI systems and Point-of-Care in-vitro diagnostics solutions. We specifically argue that Design for Evolvability can realign the agendas of various healthcare stakeholders, serving both individual and national interests. We finally acknowledge the limitations of current engineering design practices and call for new theoretical and empirical research initiatives taking a systems perspective on healthcare product and service design.

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