What do you think?
Rate this book
Designing for Health: The Human-Centered Approach
Want to make healthcare work for the humans who give and receive care? Intentional, human-centered design is the essential (and missing) ingredient.
The US healthcare system...well, it could use some help. Some aspects work well—taking care of very sick people with insurance—but
other parts are very bad—healthcare access for the poor, equitable outcomes, chronic disease management, and medical bankruptcy.
The system is difficult to use, and people typically only engage when something is wrong with them. Care providers and patients
mostly agree that the healthcare experience is terrible, even when outcomes are good. Clinicians also face a merry-go-round of
neverending paperwork and moral hazards. On top of it all, the broader care ecosystem has emerged by necessity, but was not designed
with the people giving or receiving care in mind.
There is no ecosystem-wide solution, but we can build something better from thebottom up. That journey starts with a
humancentered approach to managing health, preventing disease, and treating illness. Theprinciples in this book are a way of
thinking about designing processes, workflows, operations, and technologies around the person-to-person interaction that is the heart of
healthcare. They lay the foundation for creating more effective and equitable healthcare, improving experiences, and engaging patients and
doctors in a vision of health as a lifelong endeavor.
The time to start is now.
The US healthcare system...well, it could use some help. Some aspects work well—taking care of very sick people with insurance—but
other parts are very bad—healthcare access for the poor, equitable outcomes, chronic disease management, and medical bankruptcy.
The system is difficult to use, and people typically only engage when something is wrong with them. Care providers and patients
mostly agree that the healthcare experience is terrible, even when outcomes are good. Clinicians also face a merry-go-round of
neverending paperwork and moral hazards. On top of it all, the broader care ecosystem has emerged by necessity, but was not designed
with the people giving or receiving care in mind.
There is no ecosystem-wide solution, but we can build something better from thebottom up. That journey starts with a
humancentered approach to managing health, preventing disease, and treating illness. Theprinciples in this book are a way of
thinking about designing processes, workflows, operations, and technologies around the person-to-person interaction that is the heart of
healthcare. They lay the foundation for creating more effective and equitable healthcare, improving experiences, and engaging patients and
doctors in a vision of health as a lifelong endeavor.
The time to start is now.
169 pages, Hardcover
Published November 13, 2023
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 9, 2026
"Designing for Health" covers the foundational principles of design in a healthcare context and is well suited to hospital leadership and management. However, what distinguishes this text is just the content, but the delivery. The author makes a compelling case for the importance of design in health—presented in a way that is clear, conversational, and genuinely engaging. The writing avoids the dryness and repetition that often characterize similar works, instead offering a narrative that feels fresh and thoughtfully constructed.
Even as someone deeply familiar with the underlying theory and evidence base (this is my field of research), I found the book highly readable and, at times, unexpectedly entertaining. It consistently subverts expectations just enough to maintain interest without sacrificing clarity or substance.
This is an excellent introductory text—particularly well-suited for executives, decision-makers, and professionals entering the space who need a strong conceptual foundation without wading through overly technical material.
Even as someone deeply familiar with the underlying theory and evidence base (this is my field of research), I found the book highly readable and, at times, unexpectedly entertaining. It consistently subverts expectations just enough to maintain interest without sacrificing clarity or substance.
This is an excellent introductory text—particularly well-suited for executives, decision-makers, and professionals entering the space who need a strong conceptual foundation without wading through overly technical material.
October 5, 2024
Very disappointing. Mostly common sense. It's not worth the read.
October 23, 2025
Good primer with a few gems woven in. Focused more on systemic issues in healthcare rather than design principles, best practices or approaches.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews