Presentation - Seeing healthcare from above

Tom delivered a thought-provoking presentation on design and systems thinking approaches, that help us visualise our health and care systems from above, to allow us to:

• empathise with patient experiences
• collaborate more effectively with colleagues
• understand what data we do and don't have
• plan improvements to drive system-shift

View the presentation slides

View the papers Tom referenced in his presentation:
Designing 'Realistic' Healthcare Improvement 
Patient Ecosystem Mapping - Supporting System-shift in health and care
Channeling Change: Making collective impact work

View the presentation recording

Plenty of rich discussion followed the presentation, looking at how the methodology works, how it can be applied and how it can add value.

A summary of the issues explored can be found below.

• How can peers, colleagues and managers be encouraged to engage in mapping style workshops?
• How can Patient Ecosystem Maps be used to help collect data from across a healthcare system to inform decision-making?
• How do you decide the boundaries of a Patient Ecosystem Map?
• How can you create Patient Ecosystem Maps in a time efficient way?
• What facilitation skills do you need to learn to support Patient Ecosystem Mapping?
• Where do we access projections on how demands in a healthcare system are going to change over the next 5-10 years? (Ageing population, impact of inequalities, increasing Multiple Long Term Conditions, shifting attitudes and behaviours).
• What are the role of maps like this in supporting change?
• How do you build buy-in to transformational change when you have to work across so many groups, silos, organisational boundaries?
• How can a Patient Ecosystem Map be augmented with insights from 3rd sector and other key organisations like the Police?
• How can we learn to zoom-in and zoom-out? What level of detail do we need when mapping systems?
• What would be in an 'Atlas' of healthcare maps if you really wanted to understand how the system was working?
• What role does creating a Patient Ecosystem Map playing in empowering a healthcare team? How can having a map break down hierarchies?
• How can a Patient Ecosystem Map be used to help define the aims of the future system?
• What are the next steps for research in this interesting field of healthcare improvement?

Members of the community can connect and continue the conversation via the MS teams space. To request access to this space, please contact us on his.personcentredscot@nhs.scot

Tom's consultancy. Cofink, offer a one day course in Design Methods for Health and Care. More information