Design Thinking in Healthcare: Innovative Product Development through the iNPD Process

This paper details the design process of an innovative surgical product called the non-invasive patient tracker, based on user-centred research carried out in the operating rooms of a hospital in Hong Kong. Through examination of the first two phases of Cagan and Vogel's integrated New Product Development (iNPD) process, the author makes an inquiry into design thinking in the healthcare arena. Innovative surgery teeters on the horns of a dilemma. Although a surgical innovation may offer substantial improvement over conventional treatment strategies on the one hand, it may be perceived by both the surgeon and the patient as involving significant risk on the other. The author argues that surgical innovation, as well as the responses to it, develops through a process of 'nested' circular causalities that arise from a linearly directed intention, i.e. the intention to cure illness. She also argues that rigid and unquestioning adherence to prevailing assumptions and practices can serve to stifle originality. Surprise and novelty emerge only when the surgeon challenges both existing assumptions and the validity of their constituent elements.