Leveraging design thinking to build sustainable mobile health systems

Abstract

Mobile health, or mHealth, technology has the potential to improve health care access in the developing world. However, the majority of mHealth projects do not expand beyond the pilot stage. A core reason why is because they do not account for the individual needs and wants of those involved. A collaborative approach is needed to integrate the perspectives of all stakeholders into the design and operation of mHealth endeavours. Design thinking is a methodology used to develop and evaluate novel concepts for systems. With roots in participatory processes and self-determined pathways, design thinking provides a compelling framework to understand and apply the needs of diverse stakeholders to mHealth project development through a highly iterative process. The methodology presented in this article provides a structured approach to apply design thinking principles to assess the feasibility of novel mHealth endeavours during early conceptualisation.

A General mHealth Design Pipeline

“…The developer may also wish to incorporate other principles such as PwC's "Six Principles for successful mHealth" [14]. Other important areas for consideration throughout includes Sundun et al six failure modes [20] and multidisciplined approached such as design thinking in a mobile health context as discussed by Eckman et al [21] …”

Medical mobile technologies – what is needed for a sustainable and scalable implementation on a global scale?

“…Eckman et al propose a conceptual framework they call design thinking that engages key stakeholders right at the start of any mHealth project [19]. An efficient and early collaboration between academia, industry, non-governmental organizations and governments is needed for success.…”

The Path to Scale: Navigating Design, Policy, and Infrastructure

“…Technology is the only component of this design challenge; attention must also be given to the end users of the systemusually a health worker-and how a new tool will help them. Those mHealth projects that incorporate user-centered design principles from the outset can fare better than those that did not (Eckman et al, 2016).…”

“…Deploying within a country where the regulatory framework around mHealth may not be fully developed will also demand more time dedicated to building and maintaining relationships with the Ministry of Health and other ministries involved in the governance of digital health. Failure to actively engage government ministries may result in projects being delayed, abandoned, or outright banned (Eckman, Gorski & Mehta, 2016). mHealth scale cannot be achieved in the absence of an effective policy and regulatory environment and there are some immediate steps that can be taken to achieve this.…”

“…Allotting time and resources to product and project design for mHealth initiatives can yield positive results as the solution scales from a pilot project up to state, district, or national level (Eckman et al, 2016). Technology is the only component of this design challenge; attention must also be given to the end users of the systemusually a health worker-and how a new tool will help them.…”