Abstract
Objectives:
1) Apply Design Thinking methodology to create an innovative national program for newborn hearing screening (NHS) in Peru. 2) Collaborate with Peruvian Ministry of Health to optimize implementation of a newly mandated national NHS program. 3) Provide a model for expanding NHS throughout the developing world.
Methods:
Descriptive study with focus groups and guided interviews. Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to interdisciplinary problem solving that tackles complex problems with many stakeholders. Insight is gained through immersion, observation, and engagement. Study dates: June-December 2012. Condition studied: Permanent congenital hearing loss. Subjects: Stakeholders involved in NHS. Policy-makers: officials, politicians, academic physicians. Providers: audiologists, pediatricians, otolaryngologists, health workers. Recipients: neonates, mothers, hearing-impaired children and families. Field sites included community clinics, tertiary care hospitals, ministry of health offices, schools for the deaf, audiology offices, and patient homes.
Results:
Interviewed 105 individual stakeholders at 14 sites. Data were captured in logbooks, photography, and video. Data obtained from this work were applied in the following ways: creation of a needs assessment tool for use in Peruvian hospitals to facilitate implementation of NHS; inclusion of NHS data in Peru’s national electronic medical record; development of educational resources, both online and classroom-based for providers of NHS.
Conclusions:
This work represents the first application of Design Thinking to innovate in health policy at a national level. Through publication of these methods, the authors hope to empower providers throughout the developing world to broaden access to NHS.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.