Health Experience Design 2021

Hey team, here’s the brief for your next project. Can you build a bariatric surgical preparation and support program that takes into account… -the diverse medical needs and demographics of our patients, -how histories of trauma impact many of the patients considering surgery, -our clinical guidelines and regulatory requirements, -the limitations in staffing resources across all medical centers, -the need for consistency from the Department of Managed Health Care …oh, and can you figure out what it means to use human centered design and then use that to do all this for the largest bariatric surgery provider in the world – Kaiser Permanente Southern California?” Wait…what?! This was how we embarked on a journey to reimagine the preparation and support program for bariatric surgical patients, known as the Options Program. Little did we know in 2017, this project would transform the mindsets and methods used to design disease prevention and management strategies at Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s Center for Healthy Living. Through a practice-based examination of the redesign of the Kaiser Permanente Options Program, this talk will accomplish three goals. First, demonstrate how human centered design was applied to designing solutions to the complex challenge of health promotion and long-term behavior change. Second, demonstrate how human centered design was applied from an operational lens to design systems that allow patient-centered solutions and needs to truly be realized within a massive healthcare system. And finally, share practical takeaways and lessons learned for embracing the methods and mindsets of human centered design while still incorporating organizational goals, performance metrics, and a public health/population-based approach.