Hi Amy!

Thanks for your response. You have really valid and important points here. Health inequality, I wholeheartedly agree, is one of the most important challenges of our time. I don’t think I can attempt to capture the vastness of the problem that is represented by our health care system today. The diagrams I shared are not perfect, by any means, but try to, as simply as possible, map out a traditional view of how healthcare works today.

You’re right — it doesn’t represent the patient as a “payer” since it wasn’t necessarily built or optimized for that scenario, even though medical costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy. It doesn’t make much sense to me as a human being paying for emergency room bills deemed “unnecessary” by my insurance company. As a professional trying to make a difference in this space, I try to focus on areas where it’s in my power, as a designer, to make a difference. My only hope was to shed light on at least a few areas where I believe a human-centered point of view might make a difference to start to untangle this colossal challenge.

Note: Omada was not an IDEO client. It was founded by IDEO alumni and it’s an organization I deeply admire.

Thanks again to everyone for your thoughtful responses so far!

Cheers,
Dana