Social Structures
Authors: David Prendergast: Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Trevor Vaugh: PI at Mi:Lab, The Maynooth Innovation Lab and Assistant Professor in Department of Design Innovation, Linzi Ryan: Assistant Professor in Department of Design Innovation, Mac Maclachlan: Professor of Psychology and Social Inclusion, and Co-director of the ALL Institute
MSc in Digital Health Transformation.
On Wednesday 4th September 2019, the inaugural Health Service Executive ‘Digital Academy Forum’ was held at Dr Steeven’s Hospital in Dublin. During this meeting, Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer for the HSE announced plans for an ambitious and experimental Masters in Digital Health Transformation to help build digital skills and train future leaders in health service innovation. Co-designed between the HSE and several Irish Universities, including Maynooth, Limerick, UCD, DCU NUI Galway and University College Cork, the new degree runs over 18 months and is open to HSE employees and the General Public.
In the first semester of the degree, students completed five modules on topics ranging from eHealth Systems and Standards, Health Information Modelling and Governance, Research Methods and Digital Health Service Transformation. In the second semester, topics such as Digital Health Change Management, Clinical Decision-Making, Data Science and AI in Healthcare were covered, along with a design innovation module on Digital Health and Wellbeing in the Community run by the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute at Maynooth University. Building on these modules, students were expected to work on a substantial project designing, developing and deploying a digital solution within the Irish Healthcare system.
Within students working and attending modules in locations across Ireland, blended learning approaches had to be designed into the programme from the outset. Due to COVID-19, later modules were all moved online. It was in this context that the ALL institute’s Digital Health and Wellbeing module team, made up of David Prendergast, Trevor Vaugh, Linzi Ryan and Mac MacLachlan, designed and delivered an online module ‘Digital Health and Wellbeing in the Community’.
The objective of this module was to provide students with skills to deeply empathise with service users, develop rich insight, define challenges and creatively explore and propose innovative and meaningful concepts. To do this, the module took a human-centred approach to digital health with a specific focus on older person care. Students were provided a project brief which asked them to explore ways of reducing isolation and loneliness in older adults, with the primary objective of improving physical health, mental health or access to services. To truly take a Human-centred approach, students individually carried out primary research with older people focusing on their lived experience. Through interactive online groups, students then gathered and analysed their data to identify meaningful user insights. The key point was to focus on the feelings, emotions, goals and motivations of their interviewees. Direct quotes and synthesised themes were used to illustrate important insights, provide a voice to the interviewees and to establish a new perspective for the students on the older person’s experience. The ‘How Might We Method (HMW)’ was then used to reframe the challenge of isolation in older people as an opportunity for improvement. Finally, reflecting on all the insights gathered, students developed personas and scenarios to represent their challenges area. All aspects of the persona tied back to real data gathered during interviews and provided a focal point for group brainstorming activity.
In their groups, students were encouraged to utilise divergent thinking in order to brainstorm alternative solutions to address their reframed questions. Critically at this stage, the focus was on quantity of ideas and co-creation. Judgement was deferred and lateral thinking was encouraged. Once a volume of ideas had been generated based on identified needs, students collaboratively selected and developed those with the highest potential for impact. Solutions were then aligned with a business model and presented back to the group for discussion, critique and further development. At the close of the module, the students had generated highly creative, innovative and insightful solutions to the problem of older person loneliness and isolation.
Some of the group projects included;
Barter -Facilitating the exchange of services and wisdom between older people and their local community.
Now & Then Application – Access to local news, current and historic
Tús Nua -Empowering over 65s to embrace digital technology
Unity – A community network for older adults
The Council of Elders – a digital and physical platform that enables the sharing of knowledge and expertise.
Gran will see you now – connecting an elderly person with friends and family via their Smart TV.
DigiTeach – Digital community hub, with Virtual Reality Technology to support people to maintain their physical, mental and social wellbeing.
BridgIT – Maintaining everyday routines and connections when we can’t meet face to face
Together Against Loneliness – Join an interactive group of senior like-minded people on a whim. Enjoy companionship and choose an event or activity that’s fun together.
As well as the group project, each student was asked to reflect on their experience of using Human-centred design and write on the value of the approach to their role and to the healthcare system. Across both the group project and the essay, the group demonstrated a deep understanding of design and the module team were highly impressed by the quality of their reflections and their plans for embedding elements of design into practice. The intention of this module was to embed the skillsets, toolsets and mindsets of design across the group, not only for the benefit of this module, but across the remaining modules on the masters’ programme and beyond. We are excited to follow their progress.