Design Thinking and its use to promote patient safety: A scoping review

Abstract

Background and objective: Design Thinking is a user centered methodology used to address problems through innovation. Patient safety is a complex issue within healthcare and remains a global priority. International organizations urge the development of joint strategies to tackle this challenge. The objective was to map the current use of Design Thinking as a methodology to promote patient safety in healthcare settings. Materials and methods: A scoping review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, using indexed databases such as PubMed, CINAHL, WOS, EMBASE, Scopus, Science Direct, PsycINFO, SciELO, and ERIC, as well as grey literature from CAPES and ProQuest journals. The protocol was registered in Open Science Framework. Data were analyzed and summarized narratively. Results: A total of 55 publications applying Design Thinking in the context of patient safety were included. The six international patient safety goals were addressed, with a focus on effective communication (45%) and medication safety (35%). The study design was not reported in 65% of the cases, and 30% lacked data procedures and analysis. The healthcare team participated in 93% of the studies, while patients were involved in 44%. The most common solutions were mobile applications, software, and dashboards. Conclusions: Design Thinking is contributing to improvements in patient safety by developing co-designed solutions, particularly in the international patient safety goals of communication and medication safety. However, the lack of a rigorous methodological approach limits the validity and replicability of the results.