Health strategy and forecasting
Health and healthcare is best shaped by long-term thinking.
In the long term, demographics, technologies, community norms and environments change. In the long term, health policy, investments and programming must be designed to adapt, and to align with each other so that their macro effect is greater than the sum of their individual outcomes.
A design thinking approach to strategy and forecasting is an intense process that:
- zooms out to to understand the big picture and the systemic challenges and changes, but also zooms in to understand empathetically what these mean for individual people, families and communities.
- Brings people from a range of backgrounds and disciplines together to make sense of what is known and what is not
- Develops the vision of a preferred future, and then the roadmap of activity, delivery and investment to get there, starting tomorrow.
- Supports the process with research – often direct research with the people whose lives will be affected by the strategy, and brings this “user voice” back to the strategy table where it can build empathy and influence.
- Creates compelling documentation and visualisations of the strategic journey, and the place that participants will arrive at
- Ensures that people are brought along, engaged, and can see how they and those they represent fit into the future vision
The process – whether it is used in countries with strong, resourced health systems, or in developing countries – ensures that there is clarity through the complexity, and that the humans involved are prominent in the future design of the system.
