Designing Accessible and Inclusive (Human-Centered) Healthcare
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have gained prominence in the healthcare sector, largely driven by the challenges reported by numerous patients in accessing healthcare and feeling marginalized during clinical encounters. Patients express difficulties in accessing healthcare or feeling unwelcome in health settings based on personal attributes, such as social class, ethnicity, gender, disability, age, or religion. Research indicates that inadequate health access and experiences of exclusion contribute to preventable differences in health outcomes, commonly referred to as health disparities.
Pain points: Despite concerted efforts by healthcare organizations to reduce barriers to healthcare access and foster more inclusive care environments, many patients still express a sense of inaccessibility and feeling unwelcome in healthcare settings. Given the limited impact of initiatives within healthcare organizations, there is a clear need to explore alternative strategies.
Meeting the Need: In response to this need, I developed The Playbook for DEI, which explores the potential of human-centered healthcare design to guide the process. The Playbook aims to achieve two primary objectives: first, to demonstrate the integration of design principles into the healthcare process; and second, to prioritize DEI in order to deliver care experiences, environments, tools, and resources that are truly inclusive and accessible.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within the healthcare landscape is multifaceted and encompasses various issues. I aimed to reflect this in the final Playbook.
The playbook incorporates various design strategies such as systems mapping, research design, and analysis. Research methods encompassed secondary research and stakeholder interviews.
After gathering initial data, I reframed the design challenge. With new insights, my concentration shifted towards crafting a comprehensive end-to-end experience and formulating design principles that were aligned with the challenge.