Interconnectivity of Health Futures

With a significant growth in cost, and the growing demand of our healthcare systems as a result of populations living longer, there is growing recognition that a healthcare system based on deficit focused models and the treatment of symptoms is inadequate. Whilst health research is continually focussed on the cure of conditions and the management of health, and rightly so, there is also a move to target environment, cultural and economic factors in population health and wellbeing (Hanlon and Carlise 2012).

Exploring the Interconnectivity of health to other systems, we used the Manoa Method (Schulz 2015) in a workshop delivered at the Design + Health Symposium at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand in September 2019, to map out the future of healthcare as a system connected to social, political, economic, science/technology and environmental factors. Participants included designers, healthcare practitioners and technologists from across New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Considering a landscape 20-30 years from now, the groups worked to identify and state a future scenario or trend (for example ‘earning healthcare by points’) related to each factor, and brainstormed 5-7 primary impacts, related to their chosen scenario. They then explored further associated impacts and mapped the overall connectivity.

This paper summarises the themes of each factor and discusses the future scenarios envisioned by the groups and their associated impacts to health. The paper also includes the mapping diagrams developed by participants, provoking questions, conversations and possible actions, such as ‘how would your organisation or community change to thrive in each scenario?’