Abstract
In healthcare, change management traditionally follows a top-down approach that often neglects the lived experiences of patients and their support networks. However, integrating patients, their support people, and healthcare professionals as active partners in care is essential to developing sustainable, meaningful change. This presentation explores our recent work in implementing a new evidence-based care practice at a tertiary care hospital with the goal of decreasing maternal morbidity and severe maternal mortality, using a human-centered design framework to engage deeply with those most affected by the change.
Our approach centered on a collaborative methodology that prioritized empathy, curiosity, and partnership. We leveraged digital engagement tools and asynchronous, at-home activities, allowing patients and support people to authentically share their experiences in their own time and space. Innovative methods, such as digital cultural probes, diary tools, and virtual interviews, helped overcome traditional engagement barriers, building a richer understanding of patients’ experiences and needs. These methods also enabled us to capture insights that extended beyond what could be gathered through conventional metrics, creating a comprehensive view of the patient journey.
In addition, we engaged with clinical care providers through in-person and virtual ethnographic research, building trust and sharing knowledge through creative, interactive methods. By combining digital and in-person approaches, we built a robust framework for collaboration among patients, support people, and healthcare staff. This approach underscored the value of empathy and trust as fundamental elements of sustainable change.
Our multi-modal, patient-inclusive approach led to transformative results, highlighting this implementation as not merely a practice change but as a transition toward a new model of care. Our human-centered design process provided actionable, patient-centered recommendations, empowering patients and support people to take a more active role in their health and well-being. Through these engagements, we ensured that the new model of care was co-designed with patient input, enabling them to recognize when to seek assistance while promoting advocacy for their health and unique experience.
By embedding empathetic and human-centered principles, we identified critical barriers and facilitators to implementation that might have otherwise been overlooked. Our methodology layered patients’ needs onto the proposed care model, harmonizing their perspectives with those of clinical care providers to ensure protocols were both implementable and impactful. The result was a more inclusive, effective approach to evidence-based practice that acknowledges people as partners in health and care.
Through this experience, we gained invaluable insights into how collaborative, digitally-enabled design can embed patients’ and support peoples’ voices into healthcare solutions. This case highlights that when healthcare teams truly design with patients, rather than for them, they cultivate empowered partnerships that lead to impactful, enduring change in care delivery.