Design Thinking in Healthcare

Dr. Khodorov was introduced to design thinking when he was pursuing his MBA before medical school. Design thinking revolves around the idea of human-centered design, and it is useful when thinking about healthcare outcomes. The process involves a combination of the scientific process and creative elements. In medical school, Dr. Khodorov led a student organization that taught innovation concepts and encouraged his classmates to explore the entrepreneurship space. The doctors review examples of good and bad designs, such as pill packs instead of orange pill bottles, the confusing EpiPen drug delivery system, the automated voice system on AEDs, and instructions for scrub machines.

Then, they focus on design projects that Dr. Khodorov has been working on during his residency. During his intern year, he introduced design thinking to surgical didactic conferences. As an IR resident, he has embarked on collaboration projects with industrial design students to improve the angio suite. One of these improvements was ceiling-mounted lighting that improves visibility during procedures. Dr. Khodorov believes that valuable insights can be offered by people outside of medicine, since they often question the status quo of healthcare and can generate ideas to solve efficiency and safety problems. He notes that it is important to judge two specific characteristics of each idea– effort and impact. The best ideas are the ones with the lowest effort and the highest impact.

The next step is to convince stakeholders to accept and invest in the idea. It is helpful to find key performance indicators, forecast numerical outcomes, and identify mentors who will champion the idea. Pitching an idea as a quality improvement initiative is a great way to get dedicated time to work on the project, although it is important to pay attention to institutional policies about intellectual property. Throughout the episode, Dr. Khodorov shares some of his favorite innovation resources, including conferences, workshops and books.