Name: What's Their Story?
Author: David McDonald

About the Book

If you’re not starting with the patient you’re starting in the wrong place. The value of a patient-centered approach to healthcare design and strategy is clear, yet many healthcare professionals lack a fundamental understanding of the principles that foster stakeholder understanding important to better outcomes, clinically and economically. In this book, David McDonald shares insights imperative to illuminating patient realities and designing impactful patient experiences. Without the concepts presented in this book, healthcare professionals genuinely interested in the human condition are flying blind. There has never been a better time to define context around what it means to advocate on behalf of the patient. In this timely book, McDonald illuminates the biopsychosocial model and tackles the value of design and anthropology in patient education and empowerment—bringing an important conversation to the forefront with fresh and compelling perspectives. You’ll learn a brief history of the patient-centered concept and begin to understand two important tools that fuel stakeholder understanding: anthropology and design thinking.

Praise

“I know David's zeal first-hand and here we can read about the tools he is so passionate about--anthropology and design. His thirst for patient understanding is palpable and applauded. There truly is a rebirth at hand, and this book sets the bar for the future of healthcare strategy and marketing.”

— Alex Sydnor, Chief Strategy Officer, MaineHealth

“As the American healthcare landscape evolves, it is apparent that design thinking is crucial to the productive evolution of healthcare education, marketing, and patient empowerment. This book will provide important and fundamental bedrock to those of us interested in patient centricity and human-centered solutions for patient engagement and empowerment. A must read for tomorrow's healthcare leaders.”

— Katarina LeFever, Senior Manager/Omnichannel Patient Experience, Novo Nordisk, Inc.

“Design thinking is crucial to the evolution of our healthcare system. David's message illuminates a path we can all follow as we shift our strategic mindsets. Now more than ever we can pivot the health care process and experience. But change must be predicated on empathy and a human-centered mindset. This book is an excellent guide for those of us who want to play a purposeful role in that pivot.”

— Ian Chuang (莊子嚴), MD, MS, CCFP, Chief Medical Officer, Elsevier Health, EMEALAAP

About David McDonald

David McDonald David McDonald is a founding partner and the CEO of LIFT, a healthcare design and marketing firm devoted to the unique cause of patient-centered communication and experience design. LIFT specializes in human-centered insights and strategy for patient advocates and marketers seeking to impact Share of Experience®. LIFT is particularly attuned to the needs of hospitals and health systems as well as mature pharmaceutical company brands. As a healthcare entrepreneur and anthropologist, David has worked for more than 25 years to advance the cause of patient education and well-being. David is passionate about human engagement and consumer behavior and is a thought leader in the life sciences for his use of ethnography and design thinking as tools to improve patient understanding and education. David resides in Jupiter, Florida, with his wife Diane and a dog called Oliver.