Exploring the service system perspective on designing intelligent health ecosystems: the co-responsibility study

Data-enabled design is an approach used when designing for intelligent ecosystems. It makes use of open-ended design probes situated in participants’ everyday life. These probes are employed both to gain contextual, behavioural and experiential insights and to remotely conceptualize and deploy new design interventions. While the user-experience oriented perspective and the experimental, prototype-centric perspective on designing for intelligent ecosystems through a data-enabled design approach have been extensively described in previous literature, an examination of a service-system perspective is missing to date. In the present contribution, the latter perspective is explored through the lenses of a first-of-a-kind case study. The study was directed towards the development of an intelligent ecosystem for postoperative bariatric care, fuelled by clinical, behavioural, experiential and contextual data, able to provide tailored and personalized care and connecting patients, partners, and health professionals. Practical challenges and opportunities related to the adoption of a service-system perspective within the study were identified and connected to a reflection on the role of service design in contemporary eHealth innovation.