The 3 B’s of building empathy

Organisations that embrace Patient-Centric design tackle big health issues from fresh perspectives. They feel what the patient and their families feel.

Empathy drives solutions that solve the right problems, they are profound, simple and make a difference.

Here are our top three ways to build empathy:

1. Be Brave – look outwards
Shift your natural perspective. Get out of your usual environment - observe patients and carers in their world. Ask questions that help you to understand how they feel. What tensions, frustrations and anxiety exist for them? And why?

2. Be bold - partner with patients, families, consumers
Design solutions and services with your patients and families as part of your team.
Co-design futures in partnership. You will be surprised what you discover!

3. Be "me" - really stand in your patient's shoes by being them.
Allow the time and place for you and others to "test drive" what you are offering. Discover what works, where can it be richer and why. Encourage role plays, enable patients and staff to experience the proposed future.

Being brave, bold and being "me" will shed new light to the problems you are trying to solve.

You may not always like what you hear, see or discover - but where there is unexpected patient truth, there is opportunity.

Come along to our Dare to Design the Future of Healthcare session & be part of patient-centric design. We’ll be bringing together patients, families, carers and all organisations that help make life ‘life’ – health delivery, allied health, technology, financial, retail etc.

This rich tapestry of knowledge will help us to understand how we can start to design Australia’s health future. You can make a difference.

 Jane Cockburn is an expert in Design Thinking. Jane and is presenting at Dare to Design Future Healthcare on Friday 2 June as part of Vivid Ideas.