Design thinking, a human-centered design method, represents a potent framework to support the planning, testing, and evaluation of new processes or programs in healthcare. As opposed to traditional education needs assessment, design thinking takes the next step (beyond the impact on learning) to explore, diagnose, and test how new interventions will impact actual patient care and workflow.

Andrew Petrosoniak, Chris Hicks, and Kari White from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto will discuss how their team used design thinking to open a new emergency department. They employed end-user engagement and feedback to brainstorm and implement effective solutions to problems encountered before opening. The iterative steps and targeted use of simulation resulted in better designed departmental processes and actual clinical space while mitigating safety threats and departmental deficiencies.

Design thinking, coupled with simulation, can be applied to current healthcare system challenges such as COVID-19.

This session builds on this team’s recent publication in Simulation in Healthcare to achieve the following objectives:

Contrast traditional educational needs assessment with design thinking “customer empathy”

Apply the steps of design thinking to create simulation interventions that best meet “end-user” needs

Describe “use cases” of high impact design thinking-informed simulation education and quality and safety interventions