INSPIRING SUCCESS STORY

Faculty of Medicine at King Mongkut’s

Institute of Technology Ladkrabang

– Building a more patient-centric healthcare system

Key Highlights:

Rethinking healthcare management through Design Thinking workshops
Hands-on sessions honed soft skills such as critical listening and empathy
Telehealth system among ideas proposed to cut cost and hassle for patients

Enterprise profile

Located in eastern Bangkok, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) is among Thailand’s top universities in science and technology. In particular, its Faculty of Medicine focuses on harnessing and driving innovation to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world.

Problem statement

Thailand, one of the world’s fastest-ageing countries, is expected to become a super-aged society by 2031 – where those aged 65 and older make up over 20 per cent of the population. This silver tsunami will spark a rise in chronic and degenerative diseases, which will strain the nation’s healthcare resources. By focusing on prevention care, KMITL’s medical faculty aims to reduce the number of patients with severe health conditions and the long-term cost of managing such diseases. This would require revamping the medical process, as well as changing the way patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals approach healthcare.

Impact achieved:

From September 2022 to September 2023, Singapore Polytechnic’s User Experience Centre (UXC) held three Design Thinking workshops with KMITL’s Faculty of Medicine. These were aimed at building a more resilient and patient-centric healthcare system.

Using the Humanity-Centred Innovation approach, a framework which prioritises people's needs, UXC worked closely with patients, caregivers, medical staff, and community partners to identify their pain points and draw meaningful user insights.

Anan

_{Professor Anan Srikiatkhachorn, Dean of KMITL's Faculty of Medicine, hopes to build a more patient-centric healthcare system through Design Thinking.}

Professor Anan Srikiatkhachorn, Dean of KMITL’s Faculty of Medicine, shared how staff and students gained vital soft skills such as critical listening, empathy and idea creation from the hands-on workshops.

“The goal of healthcare is to improve the health of the population. Therefore, humans, especially patients, should be the centre of interest,” he explained.

“However, healthcare design in the past was focused more on the effectiveness of service and less emphasis was placed on the perspective of patients and caregivers.”

Through the workshops, the team also threw up some solutions that they hope to implement. These include developing a telehealth system to minimise cost and hassle for patients who require long-term care, so they receive timely diagnoses and prescriptions.

“We will use the Design Thinking approach to design and assess the acceptance of this remote monitoring system and patient care methods,” said Professor Anan.

SP-SooYin-4

^{The team from UXC guided participants through a Design Thinking framework to facilitate problem-solving.}

UXC Perspective:

Design Thinking is essentially a framework that facilitates problem-solving through several steps: envision, empathise, create, evaluate and deliver. The process is not linear, and and achieving sustainable and tangible results requires both time and commitment, said UXC Director Tang Soo Yin.

“Design Thinking is a humanity-centred exercise that requires all parties to be on board, from top management to the user,” she explained.

For instance, one exercise involved guiding the participants, who include medical staff from KMITL’s partner hospitals, to interview patients at home and identify their challenges in accessing healthcare. Such “homework” was completed on top of their regular workload and outside the workshop hours.

“We didn't have issues with incomplete projects; we didn't have issues of, ‘Why are we doing this?’. Everybody came on board very well,” said Ms Tang, who was most impressed with the participants’ enthusiasm to learn.

“Some of them are doctors who are very knowledgeable in their field. But they had no airs and kept a curious mindset,” she added. “When you have partners who are willing to work together to achieve social and community impact with positive user experience, it's a win-win for everyone.”

Ms Tang Soo Yin

_{Ms Tang Soo Yin, Director of Singapore Polytechnic's User Experience Centre, is most impressed with the participants' passion for learning new things.}

DTUX Team

_{The team from UXC held three Design Thinking workshops for KMITL's Faculty of Medicine over one year.}

_{Director Tang Soo Yin (centre, seated) and her team from UXC held three workshops for KMITL's medical faculty over a year.}

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