Table of Contents
Design for Health: Human-Centered Design Looks to the Future
- Design for Health: Human-Centered Design Looks to the Future
Global health practitioners and designers recognize that real questions remain around the application of human-centered design in global health. This supplement seeks to clarify its value and document lessons learned, while also distilling and demystifying design. We hope the supplement can act as an inspiration in building a shared vision of how design can advance impact in global health.
- Design Is an Essential Medicine
We provide an analysis of design in global health through a systematic framework to understand what it is, the value it can add, and how it compares to other common problem-solving approaches in global health. We make the case that design is an essential approach when tackling complex global health challenges.
- A Theory of Change for Guiding the Integration of Human-Centered Design Into Global Health Programming
How do design and global health practices and mindsets better integrate to drive more people-centered, innovative solutions to health challenges and achieve common health sector and global health ecosystem goals? This article discusses a theory of change for guiding the integration of human-centered design into global health programming.
- Complexity in Health: Can Design Help Support Interdisciplinary Solutions?
Public health challenges are increasingly complex and won’t be solved through traditional methods by the public health community alone. Design, with its people-centered approach and collaborative practice to harness a diversity of perspectives, can facilitate interdisciplinary efforts to creatively resolve tough global health challenges.
- Improving Data Integrity in Public Health: A Case Study of an Outbreak Management System in Nigeria
Because of existing data collection and data integrity challenges in Nigeria, the COVID-19 pandemic posed an unprecedented challenge for data and its use in decision making because of the speed and scale of the necessary response. Using a human-centered design approach to co-create an outbreak management system streamlined data and sample collection and management to improve data collection and integrity.
- Using Human-Centered Design to Develop a Program to Engage South African Men Living With HIV in Care and Treatment
Human-centered design (HCD) is a useful methodology for understanding the lived realities, needs, and preferences of men living with HIV and engaging them in the design and pilot of a peer-support program to support their engagement in care.
- Using Human-Centered Design to Develop, Launch, and Evaluate a National Digital Health Platform to Improve Reproductive Health for Rwandan Youth
Human-centered design, done with attention to meaningful participation, equity, and accessibility, is an effective methodology to design digital health interventions with and for youth as it places their unique needs and motivations at the center of the design and helps to ensure usability, equity, and accessibility.
- Integrating Human-Centered Design to Advance Global Health: Lessons From 3 Programs
Lessons from 3 global health programs indicate that human-centered design (HCD) holds great potential for developing more tailored, impactful, and sustainable products and services to improve health and well-being. However, to take advantage of the full benefits of HCD, global health practitioners need to intentionally design and implement programs differently from typical health programs that do not incorporate design.
- Methods and Benefits of Measuring Human-Centered Design in Global Health
Human-centered design practitioners should not overlook the value of systematic and standardized documentation and measurement inherent in global health and should consider ways to link design insights and solution development processes to traditional global health outcome and impact measures.
- What’s Next in Design for Global Health? How Design and Global Health Must Adapt for a Preferable Future
Integrating the practice of design with global health offers a way to ensure that all voices—from patients to policy makers—are all heard in conceiving and developing solutions that address the current misalignments and support efforts to make quality health care more affordable, accessible, and humanized for all.
