The patient experience reimagined: Staying healthy
We shouldn’t have to lose loved ones or suffer pain that could have been avoided. As a society, we have the expertise, technology, and data to make this a reality. Engine Service Design was established in 2000 and continues to exist today as a result of the opportunities to design services and products that help join the dots for patients and health professionals across parts of the healthcare ecosystem, improving commercial as well as healthcare outcomes.
Utilising elements of our Service Design System and input from stakeholders within the health sector, we’ve begun to reimagine what the patient experience of the future might look like, broken down into 5 key elements. This is Part 2 in a 5-part series, you can click here to go back and start reading from part 1.
Imagine if we could move away from the current linear, reactive journey and create a proactive circular experience; A patient journey that gives the patient ownership of all of their data in one place, making us all adept co-producers of better personal health, which in turn would allow service providers to collaborate and operate in a more targeted way. We imagine the first part of this reimagined journey begins with a focus on Staying Healthy.
A Healthier Society
To achieve a healthier society, we can already see the signals of healthcare moving away from a traditional Point-of-Care approach, and instead focusing on our lifestyle and daily habits. Healthcare and Personal Health will become synonyms and are increasingly becoming embedded in our daily lives. The objective is beginning to shift away from seeking a cure, to seeking prevention - moving from reactive to pre-emptive care.
To achieve this, experts agree that data is critical, as is the ability to capture and monitor key information anytime and anywhere. Technology is already there with a proliferation of wearables and nanotechnology; who doesn't count steps anymore?
Data is key
NHS Digital has been in existence since 2013, with a remit to utilise data and technology to improve lives. And Alhosn in the UAE has played a pivotal role in the fight against COVID-19 in Dubai.
With data being constantly captured, imagine all patient history in the same place, constantly kept up to date with the aid of wearable tech, as people go about their day. With the aid of data, AI and data analysis, patterns will likely emerge. Any anomalies could then be captured and summarised, with recommendations to keep people on track with their health.
Hyper-personalisation
Hyper-personalisation is already an expectation in many parts of life, and healthcare will likely be no different. Any recommendations could be perfectly tailored to the individual, and adjustments made quickly and effectively, as results would be immediately tracked and analysed.
Imagine being able to introduce the human Genome into the system and understand possible hereditary illnesses, receiving early warnings, enabling people to quickly make lifestyle changes, preventing the development of the sickness.
Rethinking healthcare spaces
If patient monitoring is transferred outside the hospital, this could leave room for rethinking and re-purposing the spaces not dedicated to surgical processes, emergencies, and R&D. Keeping in mind the stay healthy culture, we imagine there would also be an opportunity to create the stay-healthy school; creating initiatives and spaces within hospitals, led by medical professionals, that would impart crash courses in healthy habits and staying healthy, focused on diet, mental resilience, or mobility for example. The goal would be to encourage and educate the population to proactively stay healthy.
How might we make this a reality?
This scenario raises several experience design questions:
- What data points do we need to collect?
- How might we effectively collect them? Wearables, nanotech?
- How and what information do we feedback to patients and caregivers?
- Which stay healthy services can we design to educate and empower the population to become more proactive regarding their health?
We’re not healthcare experts, but we love helping those that are to design services and experiences that make the world a better place. We regularly look at the SIGNALS – things we can observe in the world today, that provide a glimpse into what the future might look like. These signals allow us to draw out themes and answer these questions in collaboration with experts in the healthcare sector.
Click here to read more on this Healthcare Think and Make series, where we begin to answer these questions as we explore the second pillar of a reimagined patient journey - Pre-Diagnosis
Or, better still – join the conversation and have the opportunity to influence this discussion with our expert panel, including David Hadley from Mediclinic and Dean Pollard from Bupa. This British Business Group event, sponsored by Engine Service Design, can be attended either live and in person if you are in Dubai, or virtually if you are anywhere else in the world.
