Designing the 'Care' into Health Care

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Here are some examples of what health-care experience innovation looks like:

Empowerment through self-care: Home-based dialysis is an example of self-care that provides a win-win solution for everyone. A recent report published in the medical journal Peritoneal Dialysis International recommends home-based services as the treatment of choice. The report, written by Fresenius Medical Care, the largest provider of in-center dialysis care in the country, states that "patient independence, lower mortality, reduced hospitalizations, higher overall satisfaction by patients, and lower costs are clear benefits to the [home] dialysis provider. Providing patients with the option to choose is clearly the right path, and exactly what we would want as patients."

Glucose monitoring for diabetics is a good example of self-care, with Roche (ROG), Lifescan, and Abbott (ABT) leading the way selling blood test strips for personal use. Experience innovation in the design of easy-to-use glucose monitors and supporting online services have replaced the days of cumbersome, multistep test kits that provided limited information. Today, smart monitors provide the patient with information related to diet, medications, and other factors that enable them to better manage their glucose levels and are connected to caregivers who can support a patient's care.

Empowerment through service innovation: Company health programs can support employee wellness. Pitney Bowes (PBI) set up health clinics at its largest sites, with appointment hours available before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m., made healthy changes in the cafeteria, encouraged workers to take the stairs rather than elevators, and to wash their hands regularly. They have also given employees pedometers to reach a goal of 30 minutes of exercise per day. Joseph Straw at The New Haven Register explained the additional boost to the bottom line: "The return comes in increased productivity, fewer sick days, and reduced costs in worker's compensation and retiree health care, all of which they said should be viewed as part of health-care costs."

Retail health clinics like MinuteClinic offer patients quicker, more affordable, and more convenient diagnosis and treatment of common illnesses. This provides a simple, cheaper solution for many patients who tend to avoid the doctor's office until they are really sick because it costs too much and takes too much time. Clinics are popping up everywhere, with over 200 clinics in more than 20 states.

Empowerment through Internet technologies: Online tools allow people to manage their own health records and maintain a comprehensive history. For example, Microsoft's (MSFT) HealthVault will offer free, secure personal health records that, once given permission by a patient, will be made accessible to doctors, clinics, and hospitals. Reliefinsite.com allows doctors, clinics, and patients to work collaboratively to map, monitor, and analyze pain.

Social networking and online community-building tools have the potential to create healthy communities. Imagine a help desk that would extend health care beyond limited office hours; the use of e-mail, chat, or Twitter for drug regimen updates; RFID for monitoring and medical device identification; visualization tools for patients to chart sources and severity of pains, symptoms, and drug intake, to show doctors during later visits. The sky's the limit.

User-centric experience innovations need not be relegated to businesses using design to establish a loyal bond with their customers. Applying time-tested design methods to a national institution like health care can help ensure that our citizens not only have affordable care, but that the quality of the care actually empowers them to live the lives they desire. Nothing much: just a long, happy, healthy life.

Ziba Creative Directors Eric Park and Jeremy Kaye contributed to this article.

Sohrab Vossoughi is Founder and President of ZIBA Design, the company he started in 1984. The recipient of more than 30 patents and over 200 design awards, Vossoughi was named BusinessWeek's Entrepreneur of the Year in 1992. He continues to direct projects for clients including Nike, Microsoft, Xerox and Hewlett-Packard.