The Role of Systems Approaches in Health and Care

DS 116: Proceedings of the DESIGN2022 17th International Design Conference

Year: 2022
Editor: Mario Štorga, Stanko Škec, Tomislav Martinec, Dorian Marjanović
Author: Alexander Komashie (1,2), P. John Clarkson (1)
Series: DESIGN
Institution: 1: Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; 2: The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Section: Design for Healthcare
Page(s): 1283-1292
DOI number: https://doi.org/10.1017/pds.2022.130
ISSN: 2732-527X (Online)

Abstract

The concept of Health Systems is ubiquitous in the healthcare literature. However, the question ‘what is a Health System’ is not easy to answer. The emerging field of Health Systems Design is by nature multi-disciplinary, involving several disciplines with different ontological commitments and diverse perspectives and interpretations of health and system. To avoid confusions in communication and facilitate engagement between the design and health communities, it is important to begin an open exploration of the fundamental concepts of Health Systems. This paper is a first step in that endeavour

Keywords: healthcare design, systematic approach, engineering design