26.B. Skills building seminar: Design thinking in public health

Abstract

Abstract Public Health (PH) is a multidisciplinary area that deals with complex problems. PH professionals from the global to the local level often find themselves faced with new challenges without an obvious solution. PH teams and organizations frequently try to find answers to problems with an experienced-based brainstorming methodology that can lead to solutions that might not be feasible, viable or desirable. Commonly used in the context of innovation and entrepreneurship, Design Thinking (DT) is a problem-solving methodology that allows teams to arrive at the right questions, instead of just looking for immediate answers. It requires practice in order to be implemented and important changes in the usual workflow of PH teams when presented with a challenge. This workshop intends to present DT as a valuable tool for problem solving in PH. It will provide an explanation of the concept of DT, its components and practical applications. The workshop will be in a “Skills building seminar” format with 90 minutes total. It will begin with 2 presentations (25 minutes each, followed by 5 minutes Q&A) and a 30-minute exercise with the audience. Presentation: Design Thinking and Public Health: importance and applications (Juan Rachadell) Presentation: How to arrive at good questions and test them (Nuno Do Amparo) Group exercise: Come up with a design challenge (Juan Rachadell, Nuno Do Amparo) After the presentations, the audience will be asked to organize in groups of 5 or less people in order to train the DT methodology. Each group will be instructed to choose a theme in accordance with the Conference topics and arrive together at a corresponding design challenge. This process will be guided by both workshop presenters and will include debate between the groups. Key messages When tackling Public Health problems, asking the right question is often more important than trying to obtain answers immediately. Using Design Thinking as a process to arrive at the right question, the subsequent answers will be more effective at actually solving the problem.