In the service economy, there is increasing focus on the development of innovative services
and healthcare systems are not an exception. Health care organisations, such as hospitals, are
finding themselves in a position of needing to design new services that are suitable to the
current challenges, such as the management of chronic illness and a shift toward salutogenic
models of health.
Simultaneously the design discipline of Service Design, has been gaining increasing attention
with regards to service improvement and delivery, due to its human oriented and creative
approach to problem solving. Design scholars have aligned its principles with a Service
Dominant logic of conceptualising services.
In this dissertation, I explore the contributions of service design to the development of new
health services (New Service Development), with particular emphasis on the initial stages of
the process: the service concept.
I use a design-based project which was undertaken in collaboration with the innovation unit of
a new Danish hospital, to conceptualise new decentralised services for citizens with chronic
illnesses, that would take place in 2030.
The design project is discussed with respect to how service design added value to the process
of concept generation, how this is relevant to New Service Development and I relate it to a
Service Dominant Logic for healthcare.
Keywords: service design, healthcare, service dominant logic, service innovation