What is co-design?

In Metro North Health, co-design is about creating better healthcare together.

We define co-design as:

A process where people with professional and lived experience partner as equals to improve health services by listening, learning and making decisions together.

Why should we co-design?

There are many benefits to co-design:

many minds coming together can create new ideas
it produces a better outcome (research evidence)
it is a requirement (national safety and quality standards, research, health equity)
it is the right thing to do (“nothing about us without us“)
it creates trust in health services
it fosters a culture of respect and inclusion

Metro North is committed to co-design, as reflected in key strategic documents:

MN32 (internal access only): it is our vision to be national leaders in co-designed health services
Collaborating in Health Strategy: we are committed to listen to, learn from and act upon the lived experiences of people who access or who need access to our services, including their families and support networks.

Sometimes you may need to convince others to invest time and money into co-design. You can use information from this Business Case for Co-design when developing a project or funding proposal.

Listen to how co-design has been used to make things better together in Metro North and other health services through these case studies.

Where does co-design fit on the consumer engagement spectrum?

There are many different levels of consumer engagement used in Metro North Health. Co-design aligns with the “collaborate” phase (below) because of the partnership and shared decision making. However it is likely that you will use all engagement stages at different times during the co-design project.

Source: Adapted International Association for Public Participation Spectrum www.iap2.org

What projects or initiatives can be co-designed?

Co-design approach can be applied to any project where there is the intention to make something better for those receiving or impacted by a health service. This includes projects undertaken as part of usual business (e.g. quality improvement), as a research project, or when commissioning a new service.

Examples of co-design opportunities:

patient information or educational resources
new/revised treatment pathways or models of care
new technology to support health care
changes to physical environment (e.g. clinic rooms, patient lounges)
new health services.

How is co-design similar to other approaches?

You may have heard of other terms/methods that are similar to co-design. For example:

participatory design
action research
design thinking
user- or human-centred design
generative design
co-production
co-creation
integrated knowledge translation

If you are familiar with applying these methods and they come more naturally to you, then by all means, use them.

However, with these methods, it can be easy to slip back into “designing for people” , when decisions and power are held by the designer or health system. You can ensure that you are “designing with people” (or co-designing) by considering the fundamentals for co-design and ensuring that you build the conditions for co-design before you begin and throughout your process.

Read designer Jo Szczepanska’s take on how co-design fits with other types of participatory research and design.

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