Health Innovation Development by Using Design Thinking in Pharmacy

Abstract

Nowadays, innovation plays a critical role in business operation. Design thinking is a useful tool to create innovations, including health innovation. It can be applied to various fields of pharmacy to satisfy the needs of its patients. This article presents the idea of design thinking and its process which consists of five stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. The first two steps, empathizing and defining, are the most important steps that help identify what users really need. Next, ideas are generated, gathered together, and used to develop a prototype. Then, the prototype is tested, improved, and eventually the innovation is developed successfully. In summary, design thinking can be used in pharmacy to create health innovation with the purpose of the users’ fulfillment and long-term benefits to pertinent organizations.