Systems science and design thinking for public health solutions

Professor Terry Huang and colleagues published a perspectives article in Frontiers in Public Health elucidating the benefits of systems science and design thinking to advance implementation science.

Public health challenges are complex due to dynamic systems with multiple interdependent factors and actors. Traditional implementation science frameworks help embed evidence-based interventions but often lack dynamic and relational explanations of determinants over time. These frameworks are typically linear and top-down, missing the complexity of real-world application.

Design thinking and systems science can transform this problem-oriented approach into a solution-oriented one. Design thinking is a human-centered, iterative process that fosters creativity and rapid prototyping to solve problems. Systems science examines complex, adaptive systems, using tools like causal mapping and simulation to understand dynamic relationships.

Integrating design thinking with systems science can enhance public health strategies, promoting the implementation, sustainment, and scaling of innovations. This combined approach fosters community engagement, iterates solutions, and addresses system complexity, leading to transformative changes in population health.

“While past papers have touched on either systems science or design thinking separately in moving public health forward, this new publication is the first to link the two to improve the way we approach intervention implementation,” says first author Huang. “This creative, iterative, and safe-to-fail approach can unlock public health innovations and help us develop strategies to sustain and scale new solutions.”

Terry T.-K. Huang, Emily A. Callahan, Emily R. Haines, Cole Hooley, Dina M. Sorensen, David W. Lounsbury, Nasim S. Sabounchi, Peter S. Hovmand. Leveraging systems science and design thinking to advance implementation science: moving toward a solution-oriented paradigm. Front. Public Health, 14 May 2024. Volume 12 – 2024 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1368050