A chance to share lessons learned
Shared purpose keeps me going. After close to a decade of championing design and transformation in health and social care, I can safely say that this work is incredibly challenging. In my experience, this applies right across startups, consultancies, charities and governments, as well as in health and social care organisations. Working with people in this sector who share my commitment and passion for this is also a huge source of joy, excitement, and energy. I believe more than ever that design has huge potential to help us re-imagine how we organise and run health and social care.
This is why I enthusiastically agreed when a few months ago Edinburgh University invited me to design and lead the 'Foundations of Design for Care in the Digital Age’ module at the Usher Institute, which is the university’s school of medicine. It has been a great opportunity to reflect on what I have learnt about understanding humans and designing services over the last decade. To share what continues to inspire and drive me. And to highlight the impressive work some of my colleagues are doing, who I look up to even more now.
The module is part of the new MSc in Digital Transformation in Health and Social Care - a senior leadership programme run jointly by the university and NHS Scotland. It was set up to develop a new generation of leaders who can drive, deliver, and embed digital transformation across Scotland's health and care services. I was delighted to hear that design skills are seen as an integral part of this. And it was also a big ask to live up to. What do I need future leaders to know about design mindsets, tools, and methods? Where are the current challenges, and what opportunities can we build on? And how do I fit all of this into a five-week module? With the experienced support of Edinburgh University colleagues, I set out to define learning outcomes, a course structure, assessment, and key readings – as well as write and record content.
Hopes for how students will feel
What stuck with me most was thinking about how I hope students would feel when completing the course:
- Excited – to combine their deep understanding of the health context with a method for investigating challenges and creating change.
- Inspired – to think differently, to experiment, to challenge others positively, to explore new possibilities, to collaborate.
- Confident – to start where they are, to lead and support their teams to work in new ways. To continue building on this foundation and learning.
- Challenged – to do the hard and necessary work this simple process lays out, to balance pragmatism and a desire for change and transformation.
- Collaborative – to understand design as a team sport, to use this foundation to start a journey, to utilise others’ expertise, to value design and digital experts in health and social care.
What practice looks like in the wild
In short, I wanted the course to be less an instruction manual for how to design, and more an invitation to get involved. And to see what this practice looks like in the wild – including all its messiness and non-linearity.
So what better way to do this than bring along colleagues to show some of their fantastic work, talk about their biggest challenges, and how they tackle these? I have been genuinely impressed with the breadth and depth of work they showed, and the passion and insight they presented it with. Expert guest sessions included work from all phases of the design process, and covered user research, interaction design, content design, and service design. The work ranged from protecting wellbeing in police custody, to understanding cancer charity donations, to building safeguarding into digital services, to improving safety and health outcomes after heart surgery.
Judging by the fantastic attendance and engagement, the course’s students have felt the same. I really enjoyed the considered questions and lively discussion, both during the session and on the university’s learning platform after. I was glad to see some breakthrough moments. They demonstrated real understanding, interest, and open mindedness.
And the shared purpose I relate to so strongly – working towards a better future for health and social care in Scotland.