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Human centered design workshops as a meta-solution to diagnostic disparities

  • Aaron A. Wiegand , Vadim Dukhanin , Taharat Sheikh , Fateha Zannath , Anushka Jajodia , Suzanne Schrandt , Helen Haskell and Kathryn M. McDonald ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 29, 2022

Abstract

Objectives

Diagnostic errors – inaccurate or untimely diagnoses or failures to communicate diagnoses – are harmful and costly for patients and health systems. Diagnostic disparities occur when diagnostic errors are experienced at disproportionate rates by certain patient subgroups based, for example, on patients’ age, sex/gender, or race/ethnicity. We aimed to develop and test the feasibility of a human centered design workshop series that engages diverse stakeholders to develop solutions for mitigating diagnostic disparities.

Methods

We employed a series of human centered design workshops supplemented by semi-structured interviews and literature evidence scans. Co-creation sessions and rapid prototyping by patient, clinician, and researcher stakeholders were used to generate design challenges, solution concepts, and prototypes.

Results

A series of four workshops attended by 25 unique participants was convened in 2019–2021. Workshops generated eight design challenges, envisioned 29 solutions, and formulated principles for developing solutions in an equitable, patient-centered manner. Workshops further resulted in the conceptualization of 37 solutions for addressing diagnostic disparities and prototypes for two of the solutions. Participants agreed that the workshop processes were replicable and could be implemented in other settings to allow stakeholders to generate context-specific solutions.

Conclusions

The incorporation of human centered design through a series of workshops promises to be a productive way of engaging patient-researcher stakeholders to mitigate and prevent further exacerbation of diagnostic disparities. Healthcare stakeholders can apply human centered design principles to guide thinking about improving diagnostic performance and to center diverse patients’ needs and experiences when implementing quality and safety improvements.


Corresponding author: Dr. Kathryn M. McDonald, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD, USA; and Department of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, Phone: +1 410 502 4015, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank everyone that contributed to this research, including the research team at Johns Hopkins and Stanford, as well as the members of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine. Additionally, we thank the patients, patient advocates, clinicians, and researchers that participated in the study. Johns Hopkins University research team: Leta Ashebo, Danielle Ellerbe, Owen McManus, Isabel Rubin, Robab Vaziri, Jill Williams, Zihui (Lily) Zhu. Stanford University research team: Andrea Banuet, Sheryl Davies. Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine: Dan Persky, Sue Sheridan. Clinicians and researchers: John Brush, Yvonne Covin, Carmel Crock, Traber Lee Giardina, Kelly Gleason, Robert El-Kareh, Prashant Mahajan, Daniel Motta, Andrew Olson, Art Papier, Gordy Schiff, Anjana Sharma, Dana Siegel, Kelly Smith, Janiece Taylor, Thilan Wijesekera. Patients and patient advocates: Jeanette Averett, Susie Becken, Lyn Behnke, Sarah Kiehl, Kimberly Rodgers, Shani Weber, Io Dolka.

  1. Research funding: This project was funded through a grant from the Coverys Community Healthcare Foundation. The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

  2. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Informed consent: Not applicable.

  5. Ethical approval: The Johns Hopkins Medicine Institutional Review Board deemed the study exempt from review.

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/dx-2022-0025).


Received: 2022-02-25
Accepted: 2022-07-19
Published Online: 2022-08-29

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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