Design knowledge for digital health implementation: a scoping review based on citation analysis

Design Science, vol. 11

Abstract

Abstract Implementing changes to digital health systems in real-life contexts poses many challenges. Design as a field has the potential to tackle some of these. This article illustrates how design knowledge, through published literature, is currently referenced in relation to the implementation of digital health. To map design literature’s contribution to this field, we conducted a scoping review on digital health implementation publications and their use of references from nine prominent design journals. The search in Scopus and Web of Science yielded 382 digital health implementation publications, of which 70 were included for analysis. From those, we extracted data on publication characteristics and how they cited the design literature. The 70 publications cited 58 design articles, whose characteristics were also extracted. The results show that design is mainly cited to provide information about specific design methods and approaches, guidelines for using them and evidence of their benefits. Examples of referenced methods and approaches were co-design, prototyping, human-centered design, service design, understanding user needs and design thinking. The results thus show that design knowledge primarily contributed to digital health implementation with insights into methods and approaches. In addition, our method showcases a new way for understanding how design literature influences other fields.

Authors 6

1. Fredrik Kjell Bodell corresponding

   Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Design Organisation and Strategy, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, https://ror.org/02e2c7k09Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

2. Valeria Pannunzio

   Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Design Organisation and Strategy, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, https://ror.org/02e2c7k09Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

3. Julian Houwen Aachen Department of Cardiology

   Leiden University Medical Center · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Cardiology, https://ror.org/05xvt9f17 Leiden University Medical Center , Leiden, The Netherlands

   Department of Design Organisation and Strategy, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, https://ror.org/02e2c7k09Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

4. Guillaume Lamé

   Université Paris-Saclay · CentraleSupélec · Laboratoire Génie Industriel

   Affiliation as printed

   Laboratoire de Génie Industriel, CentraleSupélec, https://ror.org/019tcpt25 Université Paris Saclay , 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, Paris, France

5. Dirk Snelders

   Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Design Organisation and Strategy, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, https://ror.org/02e2c7k09Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

6. Maaike S. Kleinsmann

   Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Design Organisation and Strategy, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, https://ror.org/02e2c7k09Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands