ArticleHealth policy and planning2020
Implementation research and human-centred design: how theory driven human-centred design can sustain trust in complex health systems, support measurement and drive sustained community health volunteer engagement.
Article in Health policy and planning, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Why do people trust (or mistrust) health organizations? A systematic review.International journal for equity in health · 2026Pooled it
- Engaging tuberculosis-affected people in investment decisions: applying a people-centered design approach in Viet Nam.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Journey to antenatal care in pastoralist communities of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia: Human Centered Design (HCD) approach.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Retention and attrition of community health volunteers in rural Malawi; a mixed-methods study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Designing a Multi-Stakeholder Intervention for Return to Work After Burnout. A Participatory Approach.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Article
- The Health Systems Research section: scope and future.Health policy and planning · 2026Article
- Reciprocal innovation in implementation science and global health: reflections from the EXTRA-CVD (extending the HIV treatment cascade for cardiovascular disease prevention) study.BMC global and public health · 2026Review
- Collaboration Around Technology Using Community Health Workers in Type 1 Diabetes (CATCH-T1D): Protocol and Preliminary Results for a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of diabetes research · 2026Article
- How does QI work? A trust-building framework in African healthcare: primary evidence from Kenya and Malawi.BMJ open quality · 2025Article
- Discreet but accessible: a qualitative study with people who use drugs and service staff about the optimal design of a harm reduction vending machine in rural Kentucky.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- The sustainability of health interventions implemented in Africa: an updated systematic review on evidence and future research perspectives.Implementation science communications · 2025Review
- Using Human-Centred Design to Codesign Patient Engagement Tools With a Patient Advisory Council: Successes and Challenges.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2025Article
- A stakeholder-driven approach to designing a peer recovery coach role for implementation in community-oriented primary care teams in South Africa.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2025Article
- Interrogating the effectiveness of service engagement for underserved populations in complex health and social care systems: towards an equitable engagement strategy.International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
- A stakeholder-driven approach to designing a peer recovery coach role for implementation in community-oriented primary care teams in South Africa.Research square · 2024Article
- Community and partner engagement in dissemination and implementation research at the National Institutes of Health: an analysis of recently funded studies and opportunities to advance the field.Implementation science communications · 2023Article
- Institutionalizing the Management of Sick Young Infants: Kenya's Experience in Revising National Guidelines on Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illnesses.Global health, science and practice · 2023Article
- Developing an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data-based mobile phone app to provide adolescents with sexual reproductive health information: a human-centered design approach.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Article
- Foundations for Meaningful Consent in Canada's Digital Health Ecosystem: Retrospective Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2022Article
- Factors Associated With Workplace and Interpersonal Trust in the Supervisory System of a Community Health Worker Programme in a Rural South African District.International journal of health policy and management · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Human-centred design (HCD) can support complex health system interventions by navigating thorny implementation problems that often derail population health efforts. HCD is a pragmatic, 'practice framework', not an intervention protocol. It can build empathy by bringing patient voice, user perspective and innovation to construct and repair pieces of the intervention or health system. However, its emphasis on product development and process change with fixed end points has left it as an approach lacking explanatory power and reproducible measurement. Yet when informed by theory, the tremendous innovation potential of HCD can be harnessed to drive sustainability, mediate implementation problems, frame measurement constructs and ultimately improve population-level health outcomes. In attempting to mine, the potential of HCD we move beyond the pragmatic 'how it works', to the theoretical question, 'why it works'. In doing so, we explore a more fundamental human question, 'How can participation and engagement be sustained for impact in close to the community health systems?' In this exploration, we illustrate the power of HCD by linking it to our theory of trust building. The research method we utilize is that of a longitudinal process evaluation. We leverage the heterogeneity of five community health units from the diverse setting (rural, peri-urban slum) to better understand what works for whom and in what context by tracking 21 groups of community health volunteers (CHVs) over 12 months. We report results with a focus on the outlier case failure to illustrate the contrast with common features of sustained CHV engagement, where recurrent reciprocal cycles of trust building are demonstrated in the successful implementation of action plans in plan-do-study-act cycles for improvement. All was accomplished by CHVs with no external funding. We conclude by discussing how HCD could be unleashed if linked to theoretical frameworks, increasing ability to address implementation challenges in complex health systems.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.