Design Thinking Frameworks for Sustainable and Inclusive Health Promotion Strategies in China

The delivery of social healthcare services is transitioning from a focus on curative measures to a more proactive approach prioritizing social health promotion. A Health Promoting Hospital (HPH) would ideally evolve beyond the conventional hospital roles of treating illness and managing chronic conditions, encompassing prevention strategies and actively fostering the overall health and wellbeing of patients and community members both within and outside the hospital setting. In terms of design application within Chinese Health Promoting Hospitals (HPHs), existing studies indicate that hospital management often regards design as a final stage solution rather than embracing a design research perspective that comprehensively and holistically influences the entire process. One approach for all-mass media and graphic design are primary communication approaches for health promotion: marginalized and vulnerable groups are, however, excluded in this approach. This research proposes three all-encompassing design-thinking frameworks—designerly ways of knowing, thinking, and doing HPH—which serve to enhance the accessibility and inclusivity of design ontology, epistemology, and methodology within the context of Chinese HPH. These design frameworks aid Chinese HPH practitioners in understanding and applying a systematic and holistic view of design thinking for HPH implementation. The ultimate objective is to transform Chinese HPH stakeholders’ understanding of design from a focus on the concrete to the abstract, and from a partial to a more comprehensive perspective within the health promotion context. This paper provides a showcase on how a comprehensive framework can be constructed through thorough exploration and integration of theoretical and practical aspects across design and non-design domains. It also identifies the three types of design frameworks, offering researchers a valuable resource for understanding the typology of design framework, guiding the development methods of effective design frameworks tailored to research objectives.