Experience-based Co-design and Healthcare Improvement: Realizing Participatory Design in the Public Sector

ABSTRACT

Over the last decade, growing attention has been paid to the potential value of design theory and practice in improving public services. Experience-based Co-design (EBCD) is a participatory research approach that draws upon design tools and ways of thinking in order to bring healthcare staff and patients together to improve the quality of care. The co-design process that is integral to EBCD is powerful but also challenging, as it requires both staff and patients to renegotiate their roles and expectations as part of a reconfiguration of the relationships of power between citizens and public services. In this paper, we reflect upon the implementation and adaptation of EBCD in a variety of projects and on the challenges of co-design work within healthcare settings. Our discussion aims to contribute to the growing field of service design and to encourage further research into how co-design processes shape—and are shaped by—the power relations that characterize contemporary public services.

KEYWORDS:

• experience-based co-design
• healthcare organizations
• participatory design

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sara Donetto

Dr Sara Donetto is a social scientist with a background in medicine and medical anthropology. Her research to date has focused on different dimensions of person-centred healthcare, including critical awareness in medical education, parents’ views of health visiting practice, and service user involvement in decision-making and service (re)design for quality improvement. Her current work focuses on Experience-based Co-design in healthcare.

Paola Pierri

Paola Pierri has ten years’ experience in social innovation, working with voluntary and community sector organizations to design and deliver services in different fields. She currently works as Local Services Strategy and Development Manager for Mind. She is responsible for a programme which aims to embed service design within the organization and its local branches, which provide mental health services and support across England and Wales.

Vicki Tsianakas

Dr Vicki Tsianakas is a medical anthropologist. She has carried out research on antenatal decision-making and more recently, on service user involvement with a focus on cancer care. She has been involved in two Experience-based Co-design projects in this field.

Glenn Robert

Professor Glenn Robert's research draws on the fields of organizational studies and organizational sociology and focuses on quality and service improvement in healthcare, and new perspectives on large-scale change. He has an overarching interest in organization development and change management that spans all three domains of healthcare research, policy and practice.