Systems Design Perspective of Healthcare Provision in Humanitarian Aid

Ana Laura Santos,Linda S.G.L Wauben

doi:10.7577/formakademisk.790

Abstract

This study focuses on the role of Systems Design in addressing the challenges of healthcare provision by international emergency relief organizations in developing countries. More specifically the challenges related to the safety and performance of medical equipment that is transferred in the aftermath of a humanitarian crisis. The aim of this paper is to describe the transfer of medical equipment and its associated challenges from a systems perspective and to reflect on the value of Systems Design as an approach to humanitarian innovation, addressing the identified systemic challenges. The concepts of Human Factors and Ergonomics, and Product-Service Systems will be presented as valuable contributions to support designers in handling a larger degree of complexity throughout the design process and to support them to make informed choices regarding this particular context.

Highlights

The present increase of frequency and complexity of humanitarian crises has a strong and lasting impact in developing countries due to the susceptibility of multiple socioeconomic variables to risks (Pelling, Maskrey, Ruiz, & Hall, 2004)
International emergency relief is a specialized field of humanitarian aid focused on short-term and life-saving interventions, aimed at the temporary reinforcement of systems jeopardized or disrupted by, for example, natural disasters or populations displaced by conflict
Medical field experts witness barriers to medical equipment use and it has been shown that medical equipment is not adequate to be used in the setting of disaster response, in particular disasters occurring in developing countries (Owens, Forgione, & Briggs, 2005; Rice, Gwertzman, Finley, & Morey, 2010)

Summary

Introduction

The present increase of frequency and complexity of humanitarian crises has a strong and lasting impact in developing countries due to the susceptibility of multiple socioeconomic variables to risks (Pelling, Maskrey, Ruiz, & Hall, 2004). The authors have (for the time being) purposely limited the definition of Socio-Technical Systems Design and selected the following general features to characterize it: alignment of system elements with a common goal, focus on system interdependencies contributing to system properties, openness to socio-technical context and societal framing, active impact of human factors in the system, long-term/lifecycle perspective, use of design thinking as a business driven, human-centred “tool” for creativity and problem solving, and a resulting “ecosystem” of design outcomes.

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