Dr. Yuri Quintana (Global Health Informatics at Harvard Medical School) shares his thoughts on design thinking and how it requires engagement with multiple stakeholders; how people-centric design requires a focus on main users and their needs; and the deep understanding of local context that global design requires.

1. Design of People-Centric
Global e-health Systems
Yuri Quintana, Ph.D.
Division of Clinical Informatics
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Harvard Medical School
April 2, 2015

2. What drives the design of systems?
People
(desirability)
Business
(viable)
Technology
(feasibility)

3. What drives usage of systems?
User
FEEL
THINK
SENSE
System
SCmuli
User
AcCons

4. Design Thinking
“The design thinking process is best thought of as a system of overlapping
spaces rather than a sequence of orderly steps. There are three spaces to
keep in mind: inspiration, ideation, and implementation.”
Source: Design Thinking for Social Innovation, IDEO by Tim Brown and Jocelyn Watt

5. Who are your stakeholders?
Who
is
your
primary
user?
Source:
Quintana
Y,
Lorenzi
NM,
Shani
M.
People-­‐Centred
Healthcare
systems:
opportuniCes
and
challenges.
In:
Global
People-­‐centred
eHealth
InnovaCon
Forum.
London:
BriCsh
Medical
Journal
Group.
Satellites.
2011:18;
17-­‐24.

6. Observing users in natural habitat

7. Letting users tell their story
Principle of Distributed Cognition - “People Self-index their stories, adding layers of meaning to their experiences, not just
interpreting content.
Principle of Disintermediation – Removal of intermediaries allows original material to be accessed
Source: - David Snowden, PhD

8. Giving users choices

9. Infosage hZps://infosagehealth.org
An Academic Division of the Dept of Medicine
at Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at BIDMC, Inc.
TM

10. Global Design Considerations
• Language
• Health literacy
• Technical literacy
• Local culture
• Workplace customs
• Culturally appropriate change management

11. Global Maternal e-Health Care
• Design of systems for coordination of care and communication
• How to design systems that are locally and culturally appropriate

12. Think Globally

13. Key Points
• Design thinking requires engagement with multiple stakeholders
• People-centric design requires a focus on main users and their needs
• Global design requires deep understanding of the local context

14. Yuri Quintana, Ph.D.
Director, Global Health Informatics
Division of Clinical Informatics
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Harvard Medical School
yquintan@bidmc.harvard.edu
An Academic Division of the Dept of Medicine
at Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at BIDMC, Inc.
TM