{"doi":"10.1111/jgs.18576","title":"Lessons learned from a design thinking workshop: Intervention design involving persons living with dementia and care partners","abstract":"Persons living with dementia (PLWDs) and their care partners (CPs) face unique challenges, with interventions to date showing variable rates of success.1-4 Understanding the priorities of PLWDs and CPs remains essential for developing interventions that aim to maximize uptake, adherence, and outcome improvement,5 yet many interventions are developed without the engagement of PLWDs and CPs.1 One translatable example that actively engages members of the target population, design thinking methodology is evincing nascent interest in the healthcare community.6 To date, few studies have incorporated design thinking methodology into intervention development with PLWDs and CPs.7 Design thinking efforts, formalized as part of “Design Thinking Workshops” (DTW), may be considered a viable user-centered approach for intervention development among PLWDs and CPs. However, investigators have exhibited limited experience with this methodology despite the benefits that design thinking has shown within other populations.8, 9 Incorporating PLWD and CP stakeholders as part of DTW process requires certain considerations that have not yet been described. As such, we sought to: (1) describe the components of a DTW centering on PLWDs and CPs, and (2) to provide investigators an economical list of lessons learned and recommendations to consider when planning DTWs. Fulfillment of these objectives may inspire others to consider this methodology when developing user-centered interventions. We conducted a 2-day DTW consisting of PLWDs, CPs, technology developers, nursing and occupational therapist dementia specialists, Emergency Medicine (EM) clinicians, and geriatric EM researchers. The overarching goal of the DTW was to develop an emergency department (ED) care transition intervention, pairing an artificial intelligence (AI) technology application with access to an occupational therapy- or nursing-trained care coach for PLWDs and CPs. PLWDs and CPs with lived experiences of ED-to-community care transitions were recruited from the Empowering Partnership Network of LiveWell Dementia Specialists, a community-based organization. A brief schedule of both days including the duration of each activity and the participation format can be found in Figure 1. During the DTW, a Research Assistant served as a transcriber to compile notes, pictures, and workshop materials that were subsequently analyzed by investigators. The research team then collectively identified and grouped challenges, successes, and processes into 10 “Lessons Learned” with associated recommendations. A total of 23 individuals participated in the DTW process, including 4 PLWDs, 6 CPs, 3 ED clinicians, 3 ED and/or geriatric researchers, 3 technology experts, and 4 community advisors. The 10 lessons learned are paired with associated recommendations and reasonings from observations noted during the workshop (Table 1). Collectively, they are: (1) Recruit a participant pool resembling the target population; (2) Provide clear, detailed logistics information; (3) Ensure PLWDs and CP dyads are central in every aspect; (4) Dedicate sufficient time for introductions and contextualization; (5) Balance agenda items and time demands; (6) Select a lead facilitator(s) possessing direct experience with the target population and in design thinking; (7) Allow exercise flexibility; (8) Use multiple modalities to promote participant engagement; (9) Engage a transcriber and a visual artist; and (10) Ensure formal collection of post-workshop feedback. We employed an innovative design thinking workshop process centering on PLWDs and their CPs, resulting in the development of an ED-to-community care transition intervention. To date, few examples in the healthcare literature have detailed DTW processes, with the process and identified lessons learned translatable to designing user-centered interventions for populations across healthcare settings. When facilitating a DTW for PLWDs and CPs, it is crucial to properly conte","journal":"Journal of the American Geriatrics Society","year":2023,"id":373335,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":5,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9556,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1134659,"name":"Chitra Dorai","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1134660,"name":"Heidi Gil","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1134661,"name":"Tonya Chera","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1134662,"name":"Edith Stern","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1134663,"name":"Kate Keefe","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1134664,"name":"Erica DeFrancesco","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":662940,"name":"Cameron J. Gettel","orcid":"0000-0002-6249-1023","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1038904,"name":"James Galske","orcid":"0000-0002-1328-0131","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":10,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:16:02.217046Z","pmid":"37622747","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}